Genesisbunnies
by Deadborder
Summary: A thousand years ago, rocks fell and everybody died. However, some survivied and eventually rebuilt civilisation and rediscovered anchient machines. Now a small group of adventurers begin a postmodern, postapocalyptic romp through a stange world.
1. PILOT

"In the old times, there was a race of beings that dwelled in the sky. These beings were so powerful, that they were considered to be men made gods. They were known as the Sky Gods."

The old Shaman peered into the flames in the center of his hut. "The Sky Gods were possessed of many marvels, and could do wondrous things. But their greatest creation was the Gildragon, a creature of immense power. Gildragon was created to protect the world and watch over it, ensuring that it would be forever safe from harm."

"But, in their arrogance, the Sky Gods made a terrible mistake. In creating Gildragon, they accidentally awoke his father, Gilvader, from his eternal slumber." He indicated to a pair of shapes painted on a leather hide, both of near identical winged creatures. One of them was white, blue and gold, the other black, red and purple. "Gilvader was a terrible creature of earth and fire, one that lived solely for destruction. When he awoke, Gilvader saw the new world around him and proceeded to lay waste to it as he had done to the old one before."

"Gilvader's rampage could not be stopped; no power on the planet could prevent him from burning it into ash. No power, that is, save for Gildragon. The Sky Gods sent Gildragon to fight his father and save the world from him. The two of them clashed in an epic battle that would determine the fate of the world."

"And what happened then?" The anthropologist asked, looking up from his notebook.

"Some say that Gildragon won, and sent Gilvader plummeting to the depths of the earth from which he had came. But, as a final defiant act, Gilvader threw himself into the world, and caused the Great Cataclysm that made this world of today." The shaman sighed. "Other say that Gilvader triumphed, and reigned down fire on the world, wiping it clean until we began anew."

"So what do you believe happened?" The Anthropologist spoke up, entranced.

"I believe that it'll cost you another twenty moneys for me to finish." The shaman finished with a wry grin.

oOoOo

**Genesisbunnies, Chapter 1**

**PILOT**

oOoOo

A shape flitted through the darkened woods, its form silent and elusive despite its considerable bulk. The machine simply seemed to melt into the shadows between the trees, passing like some form of ghost or spirit more then a gigantic metal animal.

Inside the cockpit of the graceful beast, the pilot watched the lands around her. Despite the deepness and the darkness that surrounded her, she knew this place intimately; knew every rock, every tree. This place was he true home, one that she had been forcibly taken from so many years ago.

It was a place she would return to soon, oh so soon...

oOoOo

The process of restoring a Zoid to operational condition was a long and complicated one. Despite what some people would have you believe, it was not just simply a matter of force-feeding it some red glop and letting it go. There was a lot, lot more involved with it. The joints needed to be checked to ensure that none of them were crusted up or badly damaged; the weapons systems had to be similarly inspected to see if they would even function. The controls needed to be tested to see if the Zoid would actually respond to an owner, and, most importantly, if it would even run and all. And the remains of its last pilot often needed to be removed.

But the first step was to clean it.

Zoids that had spent millennia under the ocean or buried in the earth or wherever else they had been needed to be cleaned off so all the vital restoration work could begin. Dirt, sand, soil, leaf little, barnacles, mud, bird poop and whatever else had to be removed in order to access the machine to see if it would work, repair its systems, extract its dead former owner and then (and **only** then) stick red glop into it.

It was a thankless job. But somebody ended up doing it.

"I don't get it." Rex began as he scraped another mass of barnacles off thee side of the Zoid's head. "Why do we have to clear the big one off first?"

"Because the boss said we have to clear it off first." Joe, his long-suffering fellow Zoid cleaner replied. "And that's why."

"Yeah, but... Why did he get a Beeshooter up his arse about this one?" Rex continued, regardless. "I mean, why this one big Zoid that needs to be cleaned right here and right now?"

"Because he's the boss and that's what he wants." Joe sighed again. "Now get to it. I want you to start on the tail; the stuff looks extra thick down there."

"Whatever." Rex muttered as he scampered down to the Zoid's back, near the base of its tail. As he clambered down, he could see that this particular machine had a fair deal of stuff hanging off its back. He'd spotted something at the base of its neck that he figured was a cluster of guns, which were mounted above some sort of circular indentation. He could only begin to guess what that was for.

He didn't recongise the specific model of Zoid, but he knew its type; the big bipedal thunder lizards that were hell to clean off. He was never very fond of them. And even though he knew that he was getting paid for it... it didn't really help any. The fact that his boss was being a tool didn't help any.

Tall and lanky, with blue eyes long blond hair, he didn't look the part of someone who would be scraping off a Zoid. Piloting a Zoid, yes, but scraping it off, no. He always figured that he should be off having adventures and doing cool stuff, rather then hanging off the side of a Zoid and trying to de-gunk it. Still...

He spied a place on the back where the original red finish was showing through. Sighing, he walked over to it, using it as a start point for his scraper work. He began to work at the encrusted mess of gunk, slowly peeling it away to reveal some of what was below it. In this case, it was a large red panel with battered white writing on it. He'd seen lots of stuff on various Zoids he'd scraped, usually stuff about "outer wing hoist fittings" and "static discharge vents."

"Hey Joe!" He called out as he scraped more away. "What do you think EZ-021 means?"

"It means that its not going to be 'EZ' to clean unless you get to it!" He snapped. "Now keep working!"

"Right away." He finished and sighed as he went back to work. This sort of thing seemed to happen all the time; he'd make some interesting discovery and then end up being shouted at and going back to polishing the Zoid. What irritated him was that was all he ever did.

Rex liked Zoids. He liked Zoid technology and was fascinated by the way they worked. It wasn't just that they were absolute technological marvels that fascinated him, however. It was because they were the only remaining link to the Time Before that still existed in the world. While there were lots of ruins, yes, not much actual viable technology existed anymore. But yet the Zoids, their greatest achievement, had survived. The people who piloted them were fortunate enough to be able to wield the technology of the ancients.

That why he'd taken this job as a Zoid technician. He wanted to be a part of the process that was used to revive these machines and bring them back to life. And when somebody offered him a job, well, he leaped at it. Only he didn't realise that the job would be to scrape muck off Zoids and, well, not much else. The instant the scraping was done and the real work began, he was sent off to find something else to clean.

He muttered to himself and went back to scraping. _Only a few zillion more hours_, he figured, _And we'll have this guy cleaned. _He slowly worked his way down the Zoid's tail, scraping off more muck to reveal the blood red paint underneath it. _Still got no idea why they want this one done first, though. Couldn't it be the smaller Zoid that's the rush job?_

oOoOo

Shanna Giant Zrk strode confidently through the jungle with the other warriors of her trabe, travelling alongside one of their sacred Zoids as it headed towards the Place Of Battle. Like the other warriors of the trabe, she was dressed in hand-made leathers, crafted from whatever could be taken from the horrible beasts that dwelt in the jungle. Like many of her fellow warriors, she was tall and muscular. Unlike her fellows, however, she was a woman.

The only female warrior in the trabe, Shanna had been honoured with the position simply because she was so tall and rather intimidating. With her long russet hair and attractive face, she could have easily been a rather pleasant young lady, if she was maybe a foot shorter. Instead, clad in her trabal leathers, with blue war paint on her face and arms and carrying a massive two-handed sword, she was considered to be one of the trabe's toughest warriors. So much so that virtually everyone in the trabe was afraid of her. This was something that she didn't understand. She was nice most of the time, and friendly to most everyone.

Shrugging to herself, Shanna resumed her march. Of all the warriors in the trabe, only two of them weren't walking. Morrigan Serpent, the trabe's designated champion, was piloting their Hebby Rhimos into battle, and would be representing them all. Hopefully, if all went well, he would be the only man to fight today. His job would be to meet the other trabe's champion in combat and defeat them. Then, if both trabes were in agreement, it would end there and they could all go back home.

If not, then everyone would fight.

To officiate the battle, Darshad Namer, the trabe's high priest, would be witnessing it. After the battle was over, he would judge it according to the ancient Lore to see that all went good and proper. As the high priest, he was entitled to travel to the battlefield in the Hebby Rhimos' high chair, the small secondary seat concealed within the Zoid's back. (Shanna had always suspected that the chair was meant to do more then just be a way to cart around priests and other people, but she still didn't know what.)

The procession reached the battlefield, an ancient and sacred place in the heart of the jungle. An enormous stone ovoid, it was an imposing ruin of the Old Times before the Great Cataclysm. According to the priests, Zoids used to do battle here millennia ago before the End Times came about. By having their ritual battles here, the Trabe were honouring their ancestors. The procession entered the arena, and then stopped, looking out at the empty field.

"Where are they?" Shanna began. "Are they not coming?"

"Maybe they are just late." Another warrior began. "They often are."

"Maybe their Shaman just ate the wrong herb and is having visions." A third laughed.

Shanna nodded. She could never understand the shamans that lead ancient enemies. Their belief in invisible spirits that dwelt in every object around them was rather silly to her mind, especially when they went on their rants about the earth being alive.

"I heard that the priest prayed all night to the Sky Gods for a good victory." A warrior spoke up.

Now super powerful beings that dwelt above the skies where nobody could see them? That was a sensible belief.

The Priest joined the gathering of warriors by the Zoid's feet. "Silence!" He called out, his ceremonial hood back to reveal his aged features and long beard. "Silence! This is a sacred place! This is the arena of Heroic Combat! Still your idle tongues and show respect, less the Sky Gods strike you down for your impudence!" As one, the Trabe's warriors bowed their heads and muttered an apology.

A loud clanking noise interrupted their reverence as a second Zoid entered the arena, a group of warriors around its base. Unlike their Hebby Rhimos, which sported rather simple trabal markings to signify its power, the other trabe's Bearfighter sported a lot more decoration. Much of its body was covered in jagged red patches of paint, meant to emphasise its strength. Animal skulls were arranged on top of its canopy and on its shoulders, while spears decorated other parts of its body. The warriors around it were similarly adorned; unlike their own trabe with their simple leathers, their opponents preferred to go bare cheated and wear animal skins on their heads and shoulders.

A single member of the other trabe, a middle-aged man dressed in a long cloak and carrying a rams-head staff stepped forward to the center of the arena. Dashard Namer joined him, the pair of them facing off. "Morrigan Serpent of the Spiral Mountain Trabe!" Dashard called out. "Are you ready?"

"I am!" he shouted back form the Rhimos.

"Ugh Witwicky of the Clan of the Cave Bearfighter!" The shaman called out. "Are you ready?"

"Me am!" The Bearfighter's pilot called out.

"Morrigan Serpent versus Ugh Witwicky!" They both began, intoning the ceremonial chant of battle. "Both contestants confirmed! Arena confirmed! Contestants ready… fight!" The pair of them then sprinted out of the way as the two Zoids went into action.

The Bearfighter roared and reared up onto its hind legs, charging forwards. In reply, the Hebby Rhimos lowered its head and charged towards its opponent, its drill-like horn spinning. Shanna held her breath with anticipation at the inevitable clash; a battle such as this would be one to remember. Both champions were amongst the strongest men in their trabes; both were masters of their Zoids who knew every inch of their capabilities. And while she had faith in Morrigan, she knew that it would not be easy for him to triumph.

She herself had learned how to pilot the Zoids, the sacred machines that were the guardians of the Trabe. However, she had never had the chance to use one in battle. She knew that someday her day would come where she would represent her people in Heroic Combat. Until then, she could but hope.

The Bearfighter lunged forwards to strike, but instead slipped over in the mud that coated the arena floor. As it had rained just the previous night, the ground was both slippery and trecherous. The Zoid stumbled, then fell flat on its back, its momentum causing it to skid forwards. Seeing the enemy Zoid spiral out of control, Morrigan tried to bring his own machine around to avoid the battle. Instead, the Rhimos skidded, then slipped over onto its side. The two Zoids came together with a titanic crash, the Rhimos rolling over and flopping down onto the Bearfighter's body.

There was a long silence, punctuated only by the cackle of a lone kookaburra.

"Um, want to call it a day?" Dashade Namer began.

"Yeah, right." The Shaman replied. "What do you reckon?"

"Well... the Rhimos is on top of the Bearfighter." He observed, pointing to the two Zoids. The Hebby Rhimos' feet were wiggling ineffectually in the air from where it lay.

"Fair enough."

Drashade stepped forwards. "The battle is over!" He announced. "The winner is Morrigan Serpent from the Spiral Mountain Trabe!"

"That was... interesting." Shanna spoke up. Nobody bothered to tell her to be quiet. They were all lost for words.

oOoOo

It was a quiet and peaceful day in the village. The sun was shining down on the men and women toiling n the fields, harvesting the crops so that they would have plenty to eat in the long, cold winter to come. Men and women went around their daily business in the village proper, talking while trading or cooking or taking part in their normal, mundane lives. Small children ran in amongst them, laughing and happily playing in the sunshine.

It couldn't last.

A pair of long shadows fell over the village as a pair of Zoids approached. The two Command Wolf LCs towered over most everything else in the village, giving theism an air of invincibility that their pilots clearly reveled in. Their desert-tan paint was chipped and battered, and both machines showed considerable wear. Yet, at the same time, they were both clearly more powerful then anything in the village.

"All right you primitive screwheads, listen up!" The pilot of one of the Command Wolves began. "You've got two choices here. You can either hand us over all your food and any valuables you have, or we can burn this pathetic little mudhole to the ground."

"And he means it too." The other pilot added. "You don't want to mess with us. We will do it!"

An old man stepped forwards, looking up at the two Zoids. "Go away now!" he shouted, waving his walking stick at one of the Zoids. "We don't want your kind here! Go away or you will be sorry!"

"Hey, old man!" One of the pilots called out. "Shut up and go away! Nobody tells us what to do!"

"Yeah, you're giving us sass!" The second added.

"We oughta crush you for that!"

"Yeah! Crush him! That'll teach him to give you sass!"

"I mean it!" The old man called out. "Go away if you value your lives!"

"Ooh, now the old fart's threatening us!" The pilot called out. "I'm scared! I'm so very scared! What are you gonna do old man? You gonna get caught in my Zoid's foot? Gonna gum up the works? Or are you gonna beat my Zoid with your stick? Huh?"

"Yeah! Whatcha gonna do, pops?" The second continued.

"You'll be sorry!" The man said as he turned and walked off. "You'll wish you had left!"

"Not so tough, are you?" He began. "Yeah, old man, I'm talking to you! You're all talk, aren't ya? You act big, but you're just another scared little peasant!"

While the Wolf pilot had been so intent on calling out the man, he hadn't noticed another two heading into the large barn in the center of the town. This was a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life... which turned out to only be a few seconds anyway.

There was a thunderous roar as a pair of cannons discharged, followed by a loud explosion as a pair of shells slammed straight into the Command Wolf's cockpit, instantly killing the pilot and disabling the machine. The Command Wolf tottered, then keeled over, crashing to the ground on its side.

"What the?" The second pilot called out, then turned to the source of the attack. Standing in the middle of the town, just outside what should have been their main barn, was a dull green Cannonfort, the two cannons on its back turret smoking. On the side of the turret was the insignia of the Big Town Defenders, the most powerful military force in the region.

"Yes!" One of the Cannonfort's pilots called out. "Right between the eyes."

"Ayup." The other one slowly replied. "Nice shootin' there, Jeb."

"So what now sarge?"

"We blast the other one, Jeb." Sarge slowly repined. "Ayup, looks like that's the plan."

The two back cannons, as well as the twin horn cannons fired, the shots blasting into the sides of the Command Wolf, tearing apart the armour over its shoulder. The Zoid staggered back, then collapsed as its damaged leg snapped off the body. As soon as the Zoid had hit the ground, the canopy opened. The pilot stood up, his hands in the air.

"Don't shoot! I surrender, really! I'm sorry about that whole sass thing, really!"

"Looks like our job here's done, Jeb." Sarge drawled as he watched the angry old man walk towards the Wolf's pilot. He was a young man, clad in tattered leathers. The old man shouted something at him, then clipped him over the head with his walking stick. "Ayup...wait a minute."

"What is it, Sarge?"

"Looks like we got ourselves another Zoid coming." Sarge replied. "Ayup. Definitely another one. Big one too."

"Well then let's go to it, Sarge!" Jeb called out, the Cannonfort's turret traversing to face the newcomer. "As soon as I see him, I should blast him to pieces! yeah!"

"Sounds like a good idea to me, Jeb. Ayup." Sarge drawled, then checked his sensors again. "Hold up, you might wanna wait there a minute, Jeb. Not sure if this one's hostile or not."

The pair of them, as well as the people of the village who weren't poking the Wolf pilot with sticks, turned to face the newcomer. It was a Koenig Wolf, a larger relative of the two Zoids that were sprawled across the village's square. Unlike the other two Wolves however, this one looked to be in far better condition then the other two. It was a brilliant blue colour, its paint clean from any damage or wear save for the dirt around its feet. It also sported a silver trim around the cockpit that served to highlight its eyes and futures; one line passed across one eye in imitation of a scar. The Zoid's structure as well as its weapons were flat black, while the gyrocaps were a light orange-tan colour.

The Zoid's cockpit opened, the universal symbol of a pilot who wished to parlay or, at least, was an idiot. The pilot stood, her long, midnight-black hair flowing out behind her in contrast to her delicate, pale white features. Her form was slender, yet spoke of a hidden inner strength that went beyond just physical appearance. Her face was soft, with features that would belong on a goddess, save for the single scar that marred her milky-white skin and crossed one of her her brilliant golden eyes that shone with an inner intensity. The female pilot was dressed in a form-fitting crimson shirt as well as a thick black cloak that covered most of her form. However, a pair of Katanas were visible by her side.

"Greetings, people of Muckwaller." She began. "I am Mirar Kurokami, the famous freedom fighter. I have come here today to free you from your oppression!"

"Who in the heck is that, Sarge?" Jeb began.

"I have no idea." Sarge eventually replied.

"Well, we've already dealt with those young whippersnappers in the Wolves!" The old man snapped. "So you can just push off!" This elicited a few cheers from the gathered crowd, as well as a nod from the imperiled Command Wolf pilot.

"I speak not of these base marauders that plague your lands, but of the greater threat." Mirar continued. "I have come to free your village form the iron grip of Big Town and its tyrannical ruler, the evil king Freddie Cromarte."

"Well why would we want that?" The old man snapped. "We like Freddie." This elected another round of cheers from the crowd, and some more whimpering.

"But can't you see how he's enslaved you?" She began. "See how you toil endlessly in the field,s instead of being free to feast on natures bounty."

"Well, it means that we have enough food so that we don't all starve to death in the winter." Somebody else spoke up.

"And that we don't get mauled by wild dingoes while scavenging for fungus!" Another villager added.

"I was attacked by a feral turnip once!" A third added. "I like the fields, they're safe!"

But can't you see how his troops grind you under their iron heels?" She asked, indicating to the Cannonfort.

"That Zoid's saved us from attacks several times." A villager spoke up. "Until Freddie assigned it to protect us, we were constantly being raided by outlaws and marauders with Zoids and stuff!"

"And by mutant gerwalk bikers!" Another added.

"And feral turnips!"

"But don't you see how he is destroying your traditional lives?" She pleaded.

"Freddie Cromarte gave us an education!"

"He gave us plumbing!"

"He gave us security against the turnips!"

"Freddie Cromarte is the greatest man who ever lived!" Another villager called out.

"He's given us peace, security, agriculture, a reliable food supply, sanitation and education." The old man finished.

"And safety from turnips!"

"Why would we want to be free from him?"

"Because..." Mirar paused, as if she wasn't expecting this. "Because, um... He's... oppressing you? He's... destroying your traditional lifestyle?"

"Maybe you should think this over." The old man finished. "And come back later."

"Yeah." Mirar nodded. "Um, sure. Thanks." She sat down and closed the cockpit of her Zoid. The machine turned around and wandered off, its pilot clearly confused as to what was going on.

"Well that was strange." Somebody spoke up.

"Kids these days." The old man muttered. "They're all either running off in Zoids to conquer the world or to save it without stopping to think about the good things like plumbing and loo paper." He sighed.

oOoOo

Shanna stood in the middle of the square, feeling as if the eyes of the entire village were on her. In fact, they were; apart from those officials who needed to be here for the ceremony, virtually everyone had come to watch. Very few interesting things happened day to day in Spiral Mountain village, which meant that any sort of gathering would attract lots of attention.

High Priest Drashade Namer, as well as chief Oume Zoidzilla were present, as well as her husband, Kehruem Giant Zrk. In fact, he was the whole reason why she was here, and why she had asked for this important meeting.

"Shanna Giant Zrk." Zoidzilla began. "You have requested a meeting of the village elders for a serious matter. Know that this is not for trivial concerns. If your grievance is such, then leave now."

"My matter is a serious one, Chief Zoidzilla." She replied.

"Then speak, child." Namer spoke up. "Air your concerns."

"I wish to get a divorce form my husband, Kehruem Giant Zrk." She spoke up.

There was a sudden round of whispers from the gathered crowd. "This is a most serious matter." Drashade replied, shaking his head. 'Divorce is not to be entered into lightly, especially not amongst our strongest warriors." Which was an understatement. It had taken Sahnna's family a long time to get her married off; it turned out that a lot of the men in the village were actually afraid of a woman who was bigger and stronger then they were.

"I understand that, Priest Namer." She nodded. "But I feel that I have grounds for my case."

"Then speak."

She shuffled her feet a bit, looking down as if suddenly self-conscious. "Well, um... my husband... hasn't been performing his husbandly duties."

"How so?" Drashade asked. "Has he not been hunting and providing fresh meat for you?"

"No, well... its not that. In fact, he's a great hunter."

"Then has he been neglecting you and not spending Quality Time together?" Drashde asked. Not spending Quality Time with one's partner was a severe offense. The Ancient lore spoke heavily of Quality Time.

"No, its not that sort of a husbandly duty." She explained. "The other sort."

"Oh you mean-" he paused, then looked at Drashade. The pair of them nodded, then turned back to her. "Riiiiight."

"Can you, uh, explain the situation?" Drashade asked.

"He's said he had a headache." She explained.

"On your wedding night?"

"For the entire last six months." She finished.

Drashade turned to Kehruem. "Kehruem Giant Zrk. Your wife has made a severe accusation against you. Are these claims true?"

"Well... yes." He admitted.

Shanna turned to him. "You never had any intention of... well... you know... with me, did you?"

"Well... no." He muttered.

"So then, why did you marry her?" Zoidzilla asked. It had taken a lot of hard work to get Shanna married off. Her father had been a friend of his and he felt that it was the least he could do for the man to see his daughter married to a good family. But when everybody suddenly ran off screaming in terror at the thought, it made the process rather difficult. Of course, if she got a divorce, then that would only complicate matters even further.

"Well..." He paused. "Being honest? I was hoping she'd introduce me to her brother."

"I see." Zoidzilla nodded. Shawn Redhorn was generally considered to be the best looking man in the trabe and had a queue of women trying to marry him. That he usually worked bare-chested didn't hurt matters. Still, it was the first time he'd heard of such a case. "And you had no intention of, well... you know."

"Don't get me wrong." Kehruem began. "She's most of what I want in a partner. Big, strong, muscular... just... not quite right."

Drashade shook his head, quietly cursing the Sky Gods for bringing this case before him. Couldn't a rock have hit Kehruem on the head and saved them all the bother. "Very well then!" He shouted out. "Shanna Redhorn, I now pronounce you officially divorced!"

She blinked for a moment, then realised that he had given her original family name back. "Thank you, High Priest."

"Kehruem Giant Zrk! For your deceit of this woman, you will be forced to give up your position as Trabal Zoid warrior until I say so. Shanna will be rewarded your Zoid to use for the Trabe's benefit! Furthermore, you are to be demoted to pig mucker until I say otherwise!"

"Aww, poop." He shrugged. "I mean, I accept your judgment, Elder."

"I have spoken! Let all who are here bear witness to these events!" Namer finished.

There was a small murmur from the crowd as Kehruem slinked off. "Now, young Shanna." The Cheif began as he stepped down form his official chiefly platform. "There is still one matter we must attend to."

"Yes, sir?" She asked.

"I promised your father that I would find you a good husband." The chief continued. "And, as you know, there are none in the village who are, well, up to the task."

"I understand, sir."

"So I am tasking you to carry on the proud tradition of your strong and mighty family." He continued. "You are to go out into the world and find a husband who is, um, equal to your stature. And then, when you have found such a man - and not before - you will; return here with him. You are a mighty warrior, Shanna. Prove to us just how mighty you are."

"I will not fail you, Chief." She finished, bowing before him.

"Go now, child. And may the Blessings of the Sky Gods be with you." Namer added.

Shanna stood and nodded to both of them. "I shall need to pack, but I will leave as soon as I can. Thank you both for giving me this great opportunity. I will prove not only my own strength but also the strength of our Trabe." She bowed, then ran off to her hut.

"I will be so damned happy when she's gone." Zoidzilla muttered.

"Me too, brother. Me too." Namer added.

oOoOo

"Okay, I'm done here!" Joe called out from the top of the Zoid's head. "How's it looking from down that end?"

"This thing's tail is fricking enourmous." Rex shouted back, standing on one of several blood red panels. "It fricking well goes on forever!"

"Right, well maybre if you'd spent less time complaining and more time cleaning then you'd be done allready." Joe added with a smirk. "At any rate, I'm off to get lunch. Join me when you're done."

"When I'm done..." Rex muttered. "Sure... probably just beofre the second coming of the Sky Gods I'll be done." he continued as he went back to scraping the thick muck off the Zoid's tail. While he was near the tip of it, there was a large protrusion that demanded his attention and would probably give him no end of grief. "Damn it."

He watched Joe walk past, stepping out of their main workshed and heading towards the break room. Thier Work Camp was a rather simple construction, consisting of a pair of buildings both made of a combination of wood, mud walls and whatever else was too slow to get away. The Zoid Workshop was easily the larger of the two, towering over everything else around it. It had been built to accomiade even the largest of Zoids, and even titans like the big red machine they were currently working on could fit inside it. As a way of easing hteir accmidation, it only had three walls, and an open front that the Zoids could enter and leave via.

The second building was thier far smaller break room. A combination of mess hall, sleeping quarters and anything else they needed it for, it was the social hub of the operation - quite an acheivment, given that the permanent staff consisted of a pair of men who spent most of their time complaining at each other. Its only other real function was to house anyone who may visit, such as the Boss or the boss's clients when thy came to visit and look over anything that may be being restored at the time.

Oh, and there also was an outhouse. But that was the limit of it.

"Don't you dare take the last ham roll like you did last week!" Rex yelled out as he continued to scrape away at the Zoid's tail.

"Yeah, yeah... Stop being such a grumpy tool allready." Came the only reply.

Rex continued working for a moment, but paused as he heard somehting else. It sounded like a Zoid walking, or maybe a pair of them. Whatever it (or they) were, they didn't sound too large or fast. It was odd, because the boss wasn't due by until later, and they rarely got any visitors out here, what with being on the side of a road on the edge of a jungle miles form anywhere else. He considered checking it out, but then figured that he wouldn't get any lunch until it was done. Sighing to himself, he got back to work.

As he continued to scrape, however, he could hear someone shouting outside. Or at least, that's what he thought it was at first. In fact, it sounded more like someone shouting, while someone else was yelling over a megaphone. "Your boss is late, mate." One voice began, sounding a little slurred with an odd accent.

"Come on!" Joe called back. "I've got nothing to do with this."

"Not my problem. We've got to send a message, mate."

"Yeah, one he'll get." A third voice added.

"And, well, you're the best option, mate." The first voice finished. "It's nothing personal. We're just biusinessmen ourselves, really."

"Wait!" Joe called out. "Stop... don't!"

And then there was a soun of weapons fire, a high-pitched, continious stream of it. Rex had heard Zoid weapons plenty of times before; he'd been involved in enough testing of Zoids to know that it sounded lke a rapid fire beam cannon or two, probably pumpimng hundreds of rounds out. The sound continued for maybe a minute, then stopped, ending with a slowly deepining whine. Then, after a few more seconds, the sound of the Zoids leaving.

It was only then that Rex dared to move. He'd ben standing in place for a minute, barely daring to breathe in case he bought down whatever was happoening on himself. Dropping his scraper, he leaped down off the Zoid's tail, dashing outside to see wat was going on.

Glancing around, he could see no sign of the attackers. Somehting else, however, was more immediate and urgent looking. The break room had been demolished, apprently shot to peices. The only thing still standing was the front door, rather incrediulously standign there in its frame, a fragment of wall aorund it. Joe was pressed up aginst it, a look of pure terror on his face.

"What... what happened here?" Rex asked.

"Zoids..." Joe managed to gasp out. "Desotryed... break room..."

"You okay?"

"Fine..." He continued. "Except... for pants..."

Rex glanced down. "Bu... why? Why did they deostry our break room?"

"No... idea... wanted to... speak to boss..."

Rex turned, looking over the wreckage that had been his lunch. "Those bastards." He snarle,d the anger welling up inside him. "I should make them pay for this!"

Joe swallowed loudly. "Rex, wait! Thoise guys... they had..."

"Never mind that!" He yelled as he ran back to the Workshop. "I'm going to make them pay."

As he ran inside, he looked aound for a Zoid that he could use. Besiudes Big Red, there were several others that were still muck-encrusted messes that needed work. That left only one other Zoid that he could use, a recently restored (But awaiting delivery) brown and tan Houndsoldier.

Grabbing a supply pack off the wall and leaping into the cockpit, he quickly went over the activation sequence for the Zoid, poewring it up and checking over its newly restored systems as they came on. He snarled with atnicipation as the Zoid reached allmost full power.. then slumped as it suddenly powered off. He angrily bashed thre console out of anger and frustration, which cuased the Zoid to suddenly reactivate.

"All right then!" He called out. "I'm mad as all hell, and I'm not goign to take it any moree!" The Houndsolder barked loudly, as if to underscore his statement.

"Rex, wait!" Joe called out.

"Sorry, buddy, but I have to do this." He continued. "I'm sick of being pushed around all the time. Those guys trashed my lunchroom and doesotryed my ham roll, so I'm going to give them a peice of my mind!" The Zoid stepped out of the hanger, its feet squelching in the mud as it reached the main road. "And you're not going to stop me."

"But Rex"

"Can it, Joe. Nothing's gonna hold me back this time!" The Hounssoldier turned, and ran off down the muddy track, snarling as it bgroke into a sprint.

"But Rex..." Joe finiushed, then sighed as the Zoid vanished from his line of sight. "They went the other way..."

oOoOo

Big Town's name was a surprisingly appropriate one, and almost unusual in this day and age. It was, simply put, the biggest town in the region, bigger then anything else around it by a significant degree. Built over the ruins of an enchant, pre-cataclysm city, it had grown in the last few decades. Big Town dominated all around it; it was a centre of commerce and learning, a hub for numerous trade routes and had grown to control a number of other communities around it. And it was all thanks to one man.

Freddie Cromarte, the king of Big Town, was relaxing in his private study, a glass of wine at hand. It was a fine drink, a Château Wagga Wagga red, grown on one of several vineyards that Big Town now controlled. He was taking a small break from his work, allowing himself a brief relaxation before going back to his studies of pre-cataclysm lore.

A large man, Freddie sported thick black hair and a black moustache that dominated his face. His eyes were small, and his features heavyset. At the moment, he was dressed in his typical attire, a military uniform he had designed himself based on his own research of pre-cataclysm times. It was taken from general's uniform of what his research called the Zenepith Empire, some ancient organisation about which he had found very little else. He'd added his own touches, chiefly shoulder epaulets, mainly to give it a greater feeling of authority.

Freddie liked Authority. He was a firm believer in absolute rule and absolute power. His thoughts were simply that absolute power would give him the chance to remold society into his own ideal of what it should be. Unlike many people who saw the Old Times as some mythical age, he knew something of it. he wanted to recapture that age, tone of science and reason, and elevate his people towards it. He would bring humanity out of the mud, and let them reclaim the world that was.

And he would rule it.

It was a simple dream, one that he simply wanted to share with everyone else. But yet, it was so difficult.

He turned back to the book he was studying, reading the ancient, scarred pages.

_The entrance to this continent is the crowd of the pillar of the enormous stone which is called "the gate of brassiere D gate bloodshed". It was unfolded with this gate, many swaying, in the sense, gate which dyes to the blood which is let flow._

_When "the gate of bloodshed" is passed through, that first the bottom there is no swamp spreading, when "the scream of God cry God" _

Freddie shook his head. The language had changed so much over the centuries as to make these ancient works almost unreadable. But he had to try.

A knock on his door interrupted his study. He sighed, then sat back in his chair. "What is it?" He began.

"I have some news for you, sir." He began. "There's been another sighting of... her."

"Enter." He replied, standing to look out over his balcony as one of his aides entered. "What happened?" He asked without looking at the man.

"Two days ago, a pair of roving bandits attacked Muckwaller, a small town on the outskirts of the protectorate." he began.

"I know of Muckwaller. Its one of my greatest success stories." He swilled his wine in the glass. "Did you know that in the past five years, there has not been a single feral turnip attack in that village? And before that, they lost at least one person a year with several others wounded."

"Most impressive, sir."

"So what happened then?"

"Both Zoids were dispatched by the local security force with no casualties amongst them or the civilians. One of the pilots was captured alive; he's unharmed save for being prodded with sticks." He paused.

"What Zoids did they use?"

"Command Wolf LCs, sir. Both have been tagged for salvage and restoration."

Another pair of Command Wolves. He shouldn't complain, as more Zoids were useful to his cause. Still, a bit of diversity would be nice... and there were a lot more capable Zoids out there then Command Wolves. On the other hand, it meant two more malignant parasites removed form the equation. "So what happened then? You say... she appeared."

"Yes." The aide continued. "She announced to the village that she had come to liberate them form your control Fortunately, the locals decided that they did not wish to be liberated and instead preferred your security and infrastructure to their traditional lifestyle."

"A good plan. I knew that all my work on them would pay off." He paused for a second. "What happened after that?"

"She left, but the implication was that she would return. The local defenders chose not to pursue, as they felt that their Zoid was not up to matching hers."

"I understand." He shook his head. "She has a powerful machine. However, her position is... confused to say the least."

"I do not understand, sir."

"She believes that I am wrong to try to raise humanity out of the mud and to restore the glory of the old times." He explained. "To her, my ideals are alien. She wants a return to the old order, the old ways of thinking. To her, freedom is being terrorised by marauders, scrounging for food and being mauled by feral turnips."

He looked down at Big Town, spread out below him. Smoke billowed up form numerous forges and chimneys, indicative of a city hard at work at modernising itself. "We are on the verge of full-scale industrialisation." He began. "From here, we can move on to greater things. I know that we can create a new, better world. If only she understood."

"Your orders, sir?"

"Have the garrison at Muckwaller reinforced in case she does return." He finished. "I will not let her stand in the way of progress any longer."

oOoOo

The Houndsoldier slowly plodded down the jungle track, its head hung low as it walked along. Inside the cockpit, Rex quietly fumed at himself as he examined the situation. Not only had he managed to loose the trail of the Zoid (or Zoids) he was chasing, he also knew that he was heading further and furhter away from civilisation and deeper into the jungle. Around him he could see nothing but thick jungle foliage, punctuated only by the odd ruined structure jutting out from the greenery.

"Damn it..." He muttered to himself. "Where could it have gone?" He sighed. "Hell, what is it that I'm chasing anyway? I just ran off without checking what it was and... ah hell! Now I'm in the middle of nowhere and hoplessly lost and I have no idea where the guy I'm chasing has gotten to."

He sighed and checked htough the small pack he'd bought with him. "And there's no ham rolls in here!" He added. "That makes my day just perfect."

Then it started raining, as if to prove that things could get worse.

He sighed again and continued along the jungle path, looking around for any sign of the attacker's or human civilisation or anything. Instead, what he saw was a fork in the road, with only a single, battered wooden sign to give any idea of where he was going. From the Zoid's cockpit, he couldn't make out what the sign said and, with the rain now pouring down around him, he was even less inclined to get out and check. The fact that there were a pair of skulls hanging from the sign didn't help any.

"Well that helps." He muttered as he bought the Zoid to a halt. "Now where do I go?" He considered waiting until somebody came along and asking them, but that had its own problems. He had no idea if there was anyone around, or, more to the point, if they wouldn't just kill him and add him to the signpost's decorations.

He waited for a few minutes as he considered his next move, the rain eventually beginning to ease up around him. Just as he was considering turning around, a beep from his Zoid's sensors caught his attention. Something was approaching from down one of the two paths, a reasonably sized Zoid that seemed to be at least as big as his own Houndsoldier. Swallowing loudly, he considered his options as it got nearer. _I could just run... this Zoid is supposed to be incredibly fast anyway, so I should be able to outrun most opponents... _On the other hand, if they weren't hostile, the could be a great way to find out where exactly he was.

And then, there was always the chance that this was the person he was chasing. In which case, he'd want to stand his ground and fight them.

"Dammit, what do I do now?" He asked himself. The best plan he could think of was to stand his ground and simply try to determine the identity of the newcomer, and then run like the wind if he needed too. It felt like the best idea.

The Zoid stepped around from behind the coverage of the jungle, slowly approaching his machine. It was a large, heavyset feline with short, thick legs and a broad, stocky body. While it only sported a single visible impact cannon on its belly, the two long and wickedly sharp sabres in its mouth suggested that its apparent lack of weaponry was not a weakness. Painted black and red, the Zoid had an aggressive, almost malicious look to it, emphasised by its sinister red eyes that seemed to glare straight at him.

"Um... hi?" He began, his Houndsoldier shuffling back a bit at the appearance of this new Zoid.

"Excuse me, but..." The female pilot of the other Zoid began. "Are you a powerful warrior?"

"A what?"

"A powerful warrior." She repeated. "You pilot a Zoid, so I would assume you are a warrior of some sort."

"Me?" He asked. Um, no, not at all. I'm a repairman."

"A what?"

"A repairman." He continued. "I, um, fix Zoids."

"You fix Zoids?" She asked. "So are you some sort of a preist who reads from the sacred Book of Instruction or the Owner's Manual?"

"The wha?" He shook his head, not sure if he was fully understanding her. "Look, lady, I just fix Zoids. I'm not a holy man or a warrior or the grand Poobah or anything like that." He wasn't about to tell this person, whoever they were, that he wasn't even that and merely _cleaned _Zoids.

"Oh." She sounded a little disappointed. "I've been looking for a great warrior."

"Well um..." His Houndsoldier looked around. "I'm looking for someone too. You haven't seen anyone go past recently in... a Zoid... with a funny accent?"

"You mean their Zoid has a funny accent?" She asked.

"Um, no, they have a funny accent, and they're in a Zoid." He hastily corrected.

"I don't think so." She replied. "Do you know what Zoid it is?"

"Well... not as such..." He muttered as he realized how silly he sounded. "But... I think they went this way."

"I haven't seen any other Zoids since I left my home village." She offered. "So I don't think that they came this way."

"Damn it." He glanced around. "Well then, maybe we should-"

"Hold it!" She yelled out, her Zoid snarling loudly. "Something is wrong."

"What is it?" He asked, the Houndsoldier's head glancing around. "I can't see anything..."

"There is something here, I'm sure of it." She continued.

He wasn't sure if she was crazy, or if he should listen to her. After all, her Zoid was bigger and indescribably evil looking. On the other hand, she didn't exactly sound like, well, she was all there, like she was a little soft in the head or she was just seeing things. "I don't think its a problem." He continued. "Maybe I should be-"

The jungle in front of him exploded into a mess of foliage as a Zoid burst out form cover, a blue and black scorpion-like Guysack. The Zoid chittered as it snapped its claws in front of the two Zoids. Behind them, a black and grey Barrigator, sporting a large dual-barreled beam cannon on its back, similarly emerged from cover. With a hiss, a black and red Heldigunner joined the other two, surrounding the pair of Zoids.

"Are these the Zoids you are looking for?" The female pilot asked.

"I don't know..." Rex nervously replied as he looked over them. None of them seemed to sport a weapon like the one he had heard.

A final Zoid stepped out form the jungle, a white and red Gorillatron, its colors contrasting with the others around it. "Okay, mon." Its pilot began over the loudspeaker. "You be steppin' away from you Zoids now, or else me and me boys will have ta dig ya out."

"I am sorry... I do not understand what you are saying." The woman replied.

"What he be sayin' is dat we be takin' your Zoids, one way or da oder." Another pilot spoke up. "An' eider way is good wit us... but we'd rader not ruff up de Zoids."

"I don't think that this is them." He explained. "Their accents are funny, but they're the wrong funny."

"I see." She finished. "So they're the wrong bad men."

"I suppose so, yeah."

"Well, what be your choice, mon?" The Gorillatron's pilot spoke up. "You gonna do dis da easy way or not?"

"This Zoid belongs to my trabe." the tiger pilot spoke up. "I will not give it to the likes of you."

"And this Zoid belongs to a paying client, so I can't give it up." Rex added. "Sorry."

"Well if dat be your choice, we got no option but to-" The Groillatron pilot began, but was cut off by a loud crashing noise. Glancing around, Rex saw that the Brastle Tiger had smashed one of its forepaws down on the Guysack, pressing the Zoid's head into the mud. Its claws and feet thrashed around in the air as the pilot struggled to free his machine.

"Well that was a very diplomatic solution." Rex sighed as the Barrigator charged forwards, growling as it stomped its way through the mud. A pair of shots form its back cannons narrowly missed his Zoid, instead blasting into the jungle behind him. Trying not to panic, he looked over the control panel and try to figure out what to do next; he had some experience with using a Zoid, but had never ever operated one in live combat before.

_Of course, it would have made sense to think about that before I went running off chasing those guys... _He thought. _Too late now, as always._

The Houndsoldier leaped to one side, the opened fire with the three-barreled cannon buried in its chest. Several shots went wide of the small Zoid, before a pair smashed into its back, shaking the small Zoid. The Barrigator slid in the mud, before lunging forwards again, its jaws wide open.

Rex pulled back on the stick while hammering buttons, desperately looking for some solution. He found one after a fashion; the Houndsoldier's two lances flipped forwards, jutting out ahead of the Zoid as the Barrigator struck. One of the lances rammed straight though the Zoid's exposed upper jaw, ripping the end of it off and killing the enemy machine's momentum dead.

"That.. worked?" He began, nervously.

The Barrigator slipped free of the attack, shredding the end of its jaw in the process. Coming around, the Barrigator tried to slip past his Zoid, then swing around the heavy beam cannon to attack. Rex tried to slide the Houndsoldier around, trying to evade the shot. As the beam went wide, he kept the Barrigaotr in his sights, twisting around the cannon on the Zoid's back. He opened fire, a pair of shots striking at the Zoid's back. One blasted into the already damaged spine, ripping through the armored panels. The second smashed into the base of the cannon, ripping it free from its mounting.

Hissing in surprise, the Barrigator sprinted past him, dashing into the jungle with a loud crash of crushed foliage.

Glancing around, he could see that the Guysack was still stuck in the mud and showed no sign of going anywhere. The Tiger Zoid, in the meantime, had sprinted past it, and was evading shots from the Heldigunner. He was rather impressed with how the pilot was handling her rather large Zoid, managing to avoid almost everything that the smaller Iguana type threw at her. Instead, she barreled towards the apparent leader of the enemy force, the Gorillatron.

The bandit Zoid beat its chest in defiance, then unleashed a volley of missiles form one of its shoulders. To her credit, the tiger pilot managed to twist her Zoid out of the path of most of them, the warheads detonating in amongst the dense foliage. A pair struck the Zoid's armor, but seemed not to have too much effect. _That thing's armor has gotta be far better then the other cat Zoids I've seen, _he thought as he watched it weather the blasts, seemingly unscathed.

It opened fire with its impact cannon but, rather then generating the standard energy ball, the cannons instead burst out with a stream of brilliant red-orange energy. The shots tore into the Gorillatron's chest, melting through the armor and reducing it to slag. As the Zoid staggered, the tiger leaped and cashed down on it, the pair of them vanishing into the jungle.

There was a loud roar, followed by sounds of motion and ripping metal. Then, to his shock, the bush exploded into a cloud of scattered leaves at the Gorillatron sprinted away, its left arm below the elbow missing. The Tiger emerged a moment later the aforesaid limb clamped in its mouth.

Before it could act, the Heldigunner again opened fire, several shots narrowly missing the Tiger's head. Dropping the severed arm, she turned back to face it, opening up again with the cannon at the same time as Rex also opened fire. Several shots blasted into the ground near the Heldigunner, which scurried away. To Rex's surprise, it then dug into the ground, sending huge clods of soil and much flying as it vanished underground.

"Where did he go?" the female pilot asked.

"I don't know! I can't see him... unless..." he glanced down at his scope. "I've got him on my radar!"

"What's a radar?"

"Um..." He paused. "Its a type of... way of seeing things that... are normally hidden?" Rex finished, somewhat at a loss for words.

"Well that makes sense." She continued. "Where does radar say he is?"

The Houndsoldier looked around, rain running off its head as it searched for its opponent. "There!" He shouted out. "He's right behind you!"

The tiger turned just as the ground behind it erupted, the Heldigunner lunging up for a strike that would have been successful, had its target not been warned beforehand. The Zoid crashed to the ground, then suddenly burst into a run as several shots struck the soil near it. The tiger joined in, adding its own cannon fire to the shots form the Houndsoldier's weapons. A beam struck the Zoid, searing through the cannon on the base of its tail before it vanished into the ground.

"Where is he going now?" She asked.

"I think he's running away..." Rex finished. "Yeah, he definitely is."

"Then we have defeated him." She finished, either ignoring or just not noticing the crumpled Guysack crawling away in the background. "You are indeed a mighty warrior, to fight so bravely against such numbers, and for outwitting that treacherous attacker."

"Me?" He replied, surprised. "This is my first ever battle."

"Well then you have done well for one who has never battles before." She finished. "And I owe you for your protecting me from that attack."

"Ah hell, it was nothing, relay."

"Tell me then, at least, what is your name?"

"Me, uh, I'm Rex Brandiger." He replied, somewhat flustered.

"And I am Shanna Redhorn. It is an honor to meet you, Rex Brandiger."

"Well, shucks. I'm just glad that someone came along when I was so horribly lost."

Her tiger looked at his Zoid as if to mirror her surprise. "Lost? Are you not from around here?"

"Well... no, really. I was just chasing a guy who had attacked the place where I was working, and I found you here."

"Well then, I shall aid you in finding him." She stated. "And, as I know he did not head in the way I came, we can then deduce that he traveled up the other path."

"That makes sense, I guess. We might as well get going then." The Houndsolider set off down the trail. Behind him, Shanna's Zoid fell in step. "You know, I've worked on a few Zoids, but never seen one like yours. What type is it?"

"High Priest Namer, who guards the Names of Power and the Owners Manual says that it is a Brastle Tiger."

"Brastle Tiger, huh?" He asked. "I'll have to do some research on it then. It reminds me a bit of a Saber Tiger, but a lot bulkier and more heavyset."

"The people of my village said that it suited me." She continued.

All of a sudden, he found himself wondering what she looked like. "Say, Shanna, do you mind if I ask what you are doing out here? I didn't see any other settlements around, so I assume that you're a fair way away form your home."

"Not at all." She agreed.

There was a long pause as Rex awaited her answer. Then he sighed, realizing what was going on. "So, Shanna, why are you out here?"

"I seek a mighty warrior to be my husband." She explained.

"Really?" He asked. "I wonder why."

"It is strange, but many of the men in my village are afraid of me."

All of a sudden, he began to wonder if he really wanted to know what she looked like... and if this partnership was a good idea after all.

oOoOo

As the two Zoids departed, the pilots were unaware that they were being watched by a third party, lurking sight unseen nearby. A trio of cold, inhuman eyes recorded all the information on the battle fed to it by its Zoid's sensors, then transmitted it off. Waiting until the two Zoids were well out of sight, it scurried off, continuing on its mission.


	2. Audience Nil

**bGenesisbunnies, Chapter 2**

**Audience Nil/b**

oOoOo

"Wow..." Shanna began as their two Zoids stopped on a hill. "This village... it's so massive. Its bigger then any place I have ever seen before."

Looking down at it, Rex didn't think that the town of Muddy Vale was that impressive. It was a mid-sized frontier community, surrounded by wooden post walls and thick jungle. It only existed because it was at a convenient crossroads for a mess of isolated communities and trade routes, while also serving as a base for the odd archaeological dig or Zoid-recovery expedition (When the two were often usually the same thing anyway).

On the other hand, there was a lot about his travelling companion of the last few hours that didn't seem to be right. As near as he could tell, she had just walked out of the jungle with a rather big and ominous-looking Zoid and proceeded to lay waste to a bunch of random raiders in a way that had moderately terrified him. The fact that he had no idea at all what she looked like didn't help matters at all. All he knew was that he was somewhat afraid of her, which was a good enough reason to play nice. Not only that, but he figured that, at the very least, she'd give him a little backup when he met... well, whoever it was he was after.

"Yeah, its okay, I guess." He replied.

"Do you think we'll find the men you're after down there?"

Rex considered this for a moment. The place was the biggest town around, and they had run off from him... he couldn't think of any other place they could be. And they were very unlikely to have headed off anywhere else. "I suppose so. Might as well go in and find out."

The two Zoids headed towards the town, casually walking in through the front gates and down the muddy path that passed for the main street. The buildings were ramshackle wooden constructions, seemingly thrown together haphazardly or at the last minute. Much of the town looked worn or run down, as if not much thought was put into looking after it. The people on the streets regarded their Zoids with casual indifference, the only attention they paid them was to step out of their way.

There were other Zoids about in the town, however. A pair of Connects scurried past them, their feet splashing through the mud as they ran. A battered Dimantis was parked nearby them, next to it an only slightly better looking Tarantulon. A tank drove past, dragging a pair of heavily-loaded trailers behind it.

"So many people... and Zoids..." Shanna began, an air of wonder in her voice. "I have never seen this many before, except when we meet another trabe."

"Well, get used to it." Rex commented. "This is civilisation."

"I have heard of civilisation." She explained. "But I have never seen it up close."

Rex rolled his eyes. This was going to go well.

The pair of them pulled their Zoids up in a vacant lot that had been given over to Zoid parking; as they pulled in, they were approached by men with stepladders to help them climb down from their massive machines, while another couple tied down the Zoid's feet with chains to prevent anyone from running off with them. Rex knew the setup here; the pilots would be given a key to the lock which would allow them - and presumably them alone - to claim their Zoids as they needed.

As he reached the ground, he got his first actual look at Shanna. He was moderately surprised by what he saw, starting with the fact that she was actually quite attractive. Long, russet hair, a pleasant face, shapely body... and if not for the fact that she was clad in primitive leathers, carrying a huge-arse sword and just a hair taller then him, he could quite dig her.

"Well hi there." He nervously began. "Um, Shanna."

"Yes." She nodded. "And you must be Rex."

"I am, yes." He smiled nervously. "I guess that's not quite what you expected."

"Not really." She shook her head. "You pretty much look like what I had imagined. Except for that thing." She pointed to the top of his head.

"Oh that?" He asked, poking the woolen beanie he was wearing. "My mum makes them." People kept telling him that they were ugly or stupid looking, but he didn't see why himself. He thought they were awesome.

"I see." She nodded.

Rex was about to comment on her fashion sense, but decided to leave it off. He couldn't really argue; her outfit was largely functional, even if he wasn't sure hwy she didn't just wear pants instead of a... um... he couldn't think of a word, but a large scrap of cloth that hung down at the front, with one at the back. Thingamybob. Whatever it was. On the other hand, she did have nice legs, even if there were blue patterns painted all over one thigh. At least, he hoped it was painted, given the similar ones on her arm and face. He'd hate to think that his traveling companion was a tattooed madwoman.

"Umm, Rex?" Shanna asked.

"Yes?"

"You have been staring at my leg for a few minutes." She continued. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, um... nothing." He replied, somewhat fluster at his obvious gaffe. "Lets, um, go... place and get... food." He offered.

She nodded and smiled. "Yes, food would be excellent. And while we are there, you can tell me more of Civilization and what I should expect."

He rolled his eyes, yet nodded in agreement. Anything seemed preferable to getting on her bad side, and he figured that, at the very least, she seemed reasonably nice. Or at least, reasonably nice for a big, scary woman carrying a big-as sword. The pair of them set off down the main street, Rex leading as he tried to remember the one place he'd been to the last time he was here.

A loud clanking noise caught his attention as the pair of them walked. Looking up, he could see another Zoid enter the town, a massive Bigasaur that was equipped with a huge crane on its back. There was a shape hanging from the crane, a grime and much-encrusted Zoid that he figured to be a Command Wolf, probably freshly rescued from the bottom of a lake or something similar.

"I'm glad I don't have to clean that one up." He commented as the Zoid passed.

"Another Zoid?" She asked. "But why does it look like it has been deep-fried and crumbed?"

He almost laughed out loud at the image. "That's how we find Zoids. Weren't yours like that?"

She shook her head. "My Zoid has been in the trabe for several generations. The high priests bought it back to life in my father's father's time, by using the magic of the sacred Book of Instruction and the Owner's Manual."

And then he realised that she wasn't the problem. It was that her whole tribe was insane.

oOoOo

The huge Bigasaur Recovery Vehicle came to a halt in front of one of the largest buildings in town, a free-standing tin work shed designed to accommodate even the biggest of Zoids. The machine lowered the crusty Command Wolf it had been carrying, a small swarm of handlers emerged to prep the Zoid for work. The Bigasaur itself trotted off, leaving the assistants behind to do the preliminary work.

Entering a second shed, the Zoid stopped and lowered its head, allowing its pilot to clamber out. Short and very overweight, she was dressed in a baggy jumpsuit that sported innumerable pockets and pouches, which only served to make her even plumper. Middle aged, with short curly hair and brown eyes, she looked more like somebody's overly affectionate aunt then a Zoid restorer. Pausing for a moment to wipe a bit of sweat form her brow, she waddled out, heading towards the newly arrived Command Wolf. The first stage of the restoration work, the process of cleaning it off, was easy; even the amateurs she had handling it now could do that with no problem. The real fun would begin after that, when she had to asses what shape it was in.

The communicator on her shoulder beeped, catching her attention. It was an idea of her own, to rig up a smaller communicator taken from a Zoid as a remote to the main one in her Bigasaur. That way, she could roam around in the field and still be able to stay in contact with the rest of her team. "Gabby McInnes speaking." She began as she took the communicator.

"Hey, Gabby. It's Larry-" the voice on the other end began before she interrupted.

"I told you never to call me here." She snapped.

"Well I didn't know where you were." Larry continued. "This thingamajig doesn't tell me anything!"

_iThat's because you're an idiot/i, _she thought, rolling her eyes. "Fine then, we'll make it quick." She waved one pudgy hand in the air as she was talking. "Did you finish the job?"

"That we did." He answered, a confident tone in his voice. "We whacked that-"

"Good, good." Gabby cut him off. "That's all good."

"So, um, when do we get paid for all this?" He asked.

"Same as we previouly agreed." She finished. "Meet me at my main base in Big Town in a week. We'll soert everything out there."

"Right and, um..." He trailed off. "There's not going to be any... you know there."

Gabby sighed as she looked over the row of recently restored Zoids in the hanger; a Shield Liger, a Grounchar, a Malder and a Lancetag. "No, Larry, you'll have nothing to worry about. Just get there and we'll sort everything out." She sighed again as she closed the communicator. Being the best Zoid Mechanic in the region was something of an accomplishment; the industry was booming, with a growing demand for reconditioned and restored machines. And while Big Town was the biggest single customer, there were plenty of other interested parties.

Gabby had worked hard to build up a reputation for being able to do what nobody else could, restore what was deemed unreasonable and make any machine function as if it was brand new, rather then just recovering from a thousand-year nap inside peat moss. And it was a quality that she was widely recongised for. Unfortunately, there were plenty of other operators out there who, while not as skilled as her, were a lot cheaper.

So it paid to occasionally thin out the competition. After all, she'd managed to get on the good sides of a lot of influential people with a lot of Zoids, many of which she had repaired herself. So every now and then, when it looked like some operator was coming too close to her, she arranged for something to happen to them.

After all, it was one of the best ways to test the quality of her work.

oOoOo

Rex and Shanna walked into a small eatery off the main street, taking a seat by the main window. The place was rather crowded as the end of day traffic was beginning to wander in for their evening meals. Having stashed her sword under the table (Rex wasn't sure if she should be walking around the town carrying such a large weapon so openly, but at the same time he figured that he certainly wasn't going to tell her not to) she had begun studying the menu intently as if she had never seen one before in her life... which, he realised with a sinking certainly, she probably hadn't.

"Shanna?" He asked. "Have you found something you want?"

"Can I eat anything that is on this list?"

He sighed. "Yes, anything."

"Very well then-"

"But, you probably only want to have one thing." He hastily added. "And a drink."

"I suppose so." She read over the menu again. "They don't have any boar sides here?"

"...no..." He continued. "But ham is made from, um, boar."

"What's a camalari?" She continued, cutting him off.

"That's like a piece of octopus or squid-"

"And a chip?"

"It's a bit of potato." He continued. "Cooked in some way."

"And what's a salad?"

This girl could never survive in the modern Big Town eating scene, he decided. "Its... a mixture of green leafy stuff, like lettuces and, um, things like that, really."

"Very well then. I will have the Camalari that has chips and an orange juice." She finished.

"Right." He walked over to the counter to order, adding a ham roll on top of hers, then returned. "So, um, Shanna, tell me more about where you come from."

"I am from the Spiral Mountain trabe; we dwell in a village in the heart of the jungle." She explained.

"Spiral Mountain?" He asked. "There's no mountains around here."

She nodded. "The name comes from our past. According to the legends, we lived in a far off place before the time of the Great Disaster. However, we were forced to travel from our homeland, and eventually settle where we are now. Our name reflects that tradition."

"I see. So is everyone there like you?"

"No, half of them are men." She stated, matter-of-factly.

_iI should have seen that coming/i, _Rex thought to himself. _iDefintely/i. _"I mean, can you all pilot Zoids there?"

"Oh no." She shook her head. "Only the very strongest of us are given Names of Power and are taught to pilot the Zoids that our village uses. We use them in the Heroic Combat aginst our enemies."

"Your enemies?"

"We are at war with other trabes who dwell in the area." She explained. "We battle to see who is the strongest, using our Zoids in the traditional Heroic Combat against each other."

"Heroic Combat?" He asked.

"Yes, it is the traditional combat between Zoid pilots." She continued. "Heroic Combat is one of our traditions, preserved from before the days of the Great Disaster. In it, two warriors fight to determine who is the stronger between them and their two trabes."

"So, in other words, its ritualised gladiatorial combat." He finished. "I see."

"There are rituals, yes." She nodded. "But form what you said you do not take part in Heroic Combat."

"No, well..." He glanced around, suddenly more then a little embarrassed. "Me, I'm just a repair man. I only learned to use a Zoid so I could drive it around the repair bay and test that it was working. And even then, I did very little of that. Hell, I spent most of my time just scrubbing them down."

"How did you learn to make a Zoid come back to life?" She asked. "Were you taught from the Book of Instruction or the Owner's Manual?"

"Not really..." He admitted. "I was just taught the skills by my boss, really."

"Then this Boss must be a mighty priest if he is so knowledgeable and can teach you such things." She nodded. "In our Trabe, all learning comes from the Book of Instruction and the Owner's Manual. If we did not have them, we could never operate the Zoids we have."

All of a sudden, he was curious to see the Brastle Tiger's documentation. Zoid specs were rare and few and far between, and were highly treasured. Of all the Zoid designs ever seen, only a few had complete surviving documentation, and as he had never heard of the Brastle Tiger before, what her tribe had would be a lot more valuable.

Of course, that meant negotiating with a village full of people like her for a look at their sacred texts. Not a good start.

Topic change. "You say your priests taught you all you know about Zoids..." He paused as a waiter arrived with their meals, depositing them and their drinks on the table. He took a sip from his drink before continuing. "I heard that many, um..." 'primitive' might not be the right word to use. "Remote tribes had, um... Shamans who were their spiritual leaders and stuff like that."

"Oh no." She shook her head. "The priests keep the sacred knowledge of the mighty Sky Gods, the ones who rule over us all." She nodded her head for a moment. "Shamans are just tricksters who rely on the easily fooled and superstitious."

Once again, he refrained from comment. Instead, he watched on as she began picking up her food and eating it - without using a knife or fork. "Um, Shanna?" He asked. "Your... utensils?"

"Mrrr whumf?" She asked, a mouthful of food.

"...never mind."

_iSo I ran off to chase after a sight-unseen attacker who blew up my lunch room even though I had no idea who they were or what Zoids they had, stealing a Zoid from our paying clients in the process. _He thought to himself. _Then I meet up with a crazy woman who's far bigger then me and could probably snap me like a twig and who has a Zoid that looks like its about to bite me. All this and I have no idea where I'm meant to be going or what I'm doing when I get there./i_

He shook his head. _iYeah, that's pretty much my life so far. At least today can't get too much worse/i._

oOoOo

A hooded figure sat in one corner of the room, quietly sipping a cup of steaming hot green tea while surveying the room. They were paying particular attention to the pair who had recently arrived and were sitting by the window, specifically the woman. She was clearly a warrior, as evidenced by the massive weapon she had carried. While different in style to the figure's own weapons, it was clear that her massive sword was the weapon of an expert, one who was at the peak of their skill.

What interested her more was the woman's talk; she came from a remote village that was apparently as yet uncorrupted by the influences of the outside world. Her attitudes and beliefs were still pure, untainted by the evils of man's society. She, and her people, could be valuable allies in the great struggle.

The figure continued to watch the pair of them, interested to see what would happen next. They wanted to be absolutely sure of this woman, to asses her abilities and see if she was just what they were after. While she they learned a lot so far, they wanted to see what else there was.

oOoOo

Despite his fears, Shanna had been more or less reasonable at the dinner table. He figured he'd try to teach her about the fork later; for now, he was content to let it slip. Despite her strangeness, he was finding that she was surprisingly friendly and easy to talk to; she was quite cheerful, actually, and willing to answer the various questions he put forward to her. In turn, he was trying to explain some of the social mores of civilisation that she was obviously missing while trying not to be rude about it.

In fact, everything was going surprisingly well. It was a pleasant end to what had otherwise been a quite incredibly awful day.

Which is why he felt a sudden creep of dread at the sound of a large group of people entering the restaurant at once.

"Yo!" A distressingly familiar voice called out. "DJ Griff is in his house, dawgs."

He turned around and then instantly wished he hadn't. Standing in the doorway was a huge man, towering over everyone else present in the room. His appearance could be best described as 'striking'; he had a mass of hair in an anachronistic style known as an 'ephro', a goatee beard and masses of shiny white teeth. His attire was no less arresting; a bright orange shirt that was open to his navel, purple pants and a mass of gold jewelry around his neck, wrists and fingers.

What really irritated Rex was that he knew the man. While Rex had gone off to become an understudy scraper, he'd managed to find a Zoid and a pile of very valuable artifacts. As a result, he was now surprisingly rich and had turned quite obnoxious. Rex himself had been going out of his way to avoid him.

He strode into the restaurant, a small bevvy of thugs with swords behind him. "Yo all better make way, dawgs." He continued, walking to a large table in the center of the room. "Because DJ Griff wants a feed, and ain't nothing that's gonna get in his way, y'dig?" He and his men stopped at the table, grinning at the current diners.

"Now, ladies and dawgs, DJ Griff has already booked this table." He sneered. "And the DJ sees that somebody has already taken his table, which makes the DJ very upset. And when he gets upset-" He snapped is fingers, the four thugs approaching. "There gonna be some mighty bad blood spilled, y'dig?"

As one, the group of diners stood, vacating the table.

"And the DJ does appreciate when you people do such nice things him." He grinned. "Now get outta my sight, before I change my mind and but up on yo shcnizzle, yo dig?"

He and his men barged their way past, sitting down at the table. He studied the menu for an instant, then casually threw it over his shoulder. "Yo, waiter!" He called out. A worried looking man scurried out of the kitchen.

"Yes, sir?" He nervously asked. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Bring us out five - no, ten of your best meals." He demanded. "And you better not overcook 'em or nothing, or else I'll be one bad, angry man, y'dig?"

As the waiter scurried off, Shanna leaned closer to Rex. "Is this normal behavior for civilised people?" She asked.

"Definitely not." He shook his head. "But because he's rich, he has a Zoid and he has a bevvy of thugs with swords, he can act the way that he wants, regardless of what other people think of him."

"That sounds a little mean of him."

"It is and... oh hell." Rex trailed off as DJ stood up and walked over.

"My, my, my, what do we have here?" he began with a huge grin. "And who would this sweet little chicky babe be?" He asked, clearly not knowing or not caring that he was talking to a woman who, when standing, would be nearly as big as him.

"This who?" Shanna continued, looking around. "I don't see any chickens here."

"I mean you, you sweet little thing." He continued. "Do you want to blow this pop stand and hang with a real man?"

"But I am already standing next to a man." She offered. "Rex there is a man."

DJ turned to him, fixing Rex with a death glare. "Dayum. Its you, boy. What rock did you crawl out form under?" He asked, a derisive tone in his voice. "And how did you lay a sweet piece of booty like that?"

"Well, uh, Derek." Rex replied nervously. "I mean, what a coincidence, running into my old friend in a place like this, right?" He smiled nervously."

"Yeah, right, fool." DJ sneered. "Like I'd ever want to see your scrawny little punk-arse here." He instead slapped a hand on Shanna's shoulder. "So, sweet chicky babe, what say we leave this looser behind."

"Can you please remove your hand. I do not like it there." Shanna glared at him.

"I'd do what she says, Derek." Rex nervously replied. "I mean it."

"You shout your mouth, fool!" He snapped. "I do what I want, when I want and- urk!"

He was cut off by Shanna grabbing his wrist and squeezing it as she stood. "I said, I do not like your hand there." She twisted his arm. "Nor do I like your manners. You are making my first day of civilisation a bad one, and that is making me upset."

"Really, Derek, just... you know, maybe just leave it off." Rex continued. "Ees arrying a eeliy ig ord." He added, through clenched teeth.

"For the last time, foo, my name's DJ!" He shouted, then swung at Rex with his free hand. The young man ducked, DJ's fist instead wildly scything through the air. Abruptly, he was yanked back by Shanna, pulling on his other arm.

"As I said." She continued, a feral snarl on her face. "Leave this place now."

"Hey no way, chicky-babe." He continued. "Ain't no woman who talk back to-"

So she punched him, hard, sending him reeling back with a loud cracking noise. He collapsed against his own table, blood flowing frm his nose. "Dat hurd!" He snarled. "Okay, bidch! Noboddy hids me! Ged dem!"

The four thugs charged forwards, drawing out their blades as they all ran at Shanna. The woman stood her ground, however, reaching under the table and pulling out her own sword, bringing the weapon around in a wide arc. Rex hoped that it would intimidate her would be attackers. It didn't.

One charged forwards, his blade back to strike. He was met, however, with the flat of Shanna's blade straight in his guts. With a loud "Woomph" he reeled back, crashing down on a table. A moment later, however, a second man charged at her, seemingly unconcerned about the fate of his friend. He swung around, his sword slicing towards her in a wide arc.

She ducked back, bringing her own weapon up and at his sword. There was a resounding clang as her massive, two-handed blade smashed into is far smaller weapon. The smaller sword spun out of his hand, imbedding itself, point first into a chair. Not letting up, Shanna pressed forwards, swinging her sword down at the man. He ducked to one side, leaping out of the way as her blade instead smashed through a table, cleaving it in half.

Several more patrons scampered out of the way as the fight continued, neither Shanna nor the swordsmen having any real concern for anyone else around them. A third lunged at her as she ducked around the second, his stab only narrowly missing her back as she spun around, instead wedging into the wall. Before the attacker could remove it, she bought her own weapon down, snapping the smaller sword in half before imbedding the tip of it into a chair.

The second swordsman, also disarmed, ran at her, seeking to take advantage of the situation. For his efforts, he received a boot in the guts from the woman before she swung around, the chair still wedged on the end of the sword. There was a splintering crash as she bought it down on his head, the chair smashing apart and the attacker going down.

A second disarmed fighter seems to take this as a good idea, charging at her with a chair. He swung it at her, the swordswoman barely ducking the blow, then sweeping low herself. The sword caught him behind the knees, sending him sprawling backwards onto a table, the chair crashing to the floor. The fourth swordsman ran past him, leaping at Shanna with his blade outstretched. She parried his blow, forcing him back for a moment.

"You dupid bidg." DJ commented as he wiped the blood from his nose. "Your donna ded id dow."

oOoOo

Mirar Kurokami smiled to herself as she watched the woman handle the swordsmen. The woman was proving to be everything she had suspected; a brave, wild, untamed spirit, one that was willing to stand up for themselves and their honour regardless of the odds. She was a superb fighter, even if a little destructive. And her sword mastery was excellent.

This woman would make a perfect member of her crusade. With them at her side, Mirar would finally be able to free her people form the horrible oppression that they were suffering under.

She stood up, removing her hood to reveal her goddess-like features. Pausing a moment, she cleared her throat before making a move.

Then a chunk of flying wood from a broken table smashed into her face, instantly knocking her out.

oOoOo

The last swordsman glanced at the wreckage of his weapon, and then at his three compatriots who were lying on the floor, moaning. Then, he looked up at the woman who had managed to wreak so much havoc on them. Her hair was a wild mess, and there was a feral gleam in her eye, but, more importantly, she looked to be more or less completely unharmed.

He considered his options, and then dropped his shattered sword and ran screaming out the door.

Shanna turned to DJ, angrily glaring at him. "You have ruined my first ever civilised dinner." She began. "I was enjoying it until you came along."

"Well, I... uhh..." He paused, then glanced over her shoulder. Rex was hiding behind her, nervously peering out to see what was going on. "Hey Rex, you crazy little coward!" He yelled, a nervous tone in his voice.

"Um, yeah?" Rex asked.

"You're just as damn stupid as you were as a kid!" He yelled out. "And now you is such a chicken that yo have to hid behind a woman."

"Hey!" Rex called out. "I'm no damned coward."

"Oh yeah?" He began. "Well... If you're so damned tough, then you'll stop hiding behind her and come on out and face me! Yeah! Face me, one-on-one, man to man!"

"I, um..."

"Or, even better!" DJ continued. "Face me in a Zoid, if you dare! Come on, yo stupid little chicken-crap! If you gotr a machine, then whip it out so we can get it on, heroic combat style, dog!"

"He has a Zoid!" Shanna stated. "And he will face you!"

"Shanna!" Rex snapped. "I-"

DJ burst out laughing. "You got a Zoid?" He continued. "Man, that is jus' too good for words." A grin spread across his face. "Tell you what then, boy. You and me, we go at it tomorrow morning in the clearing outside town. And yo had better turn up, or else I gonna come back and hunt yo bitch ass down and bust you but bad."

"I-"

"Very well then." Shanna finished. "Now begone! I do not want to see you before then, lest you incur my wrath even further!"

"Yeah well..." He sneered as he walked past. "See you then, dog." He finished then, as soon as he reached the door, broke into a high speed run to put as much distance between himself and the eatery as possible.

"Shanna!" Rex shouted, as soon as he was out of earshot. "What the hell was all that about?"

"He dishonoured you with is shameful words." She stated. "You had to fight him to regain your honour."

"No... that's... argh!" He shook his head. "That's stupid!"

"Why?" She asked. "Honour demands that-"

"See, that's the thing!" He continued. "I don't know about in... place... that you live but, well, out here in the real world we don't have honour and stuff like that. Honour is just, like, a crutch used by idiots who want to make excuses for themselves and whatever failings they have!" He waved his hands in the air. "I could have lived with him bad-mouthing me to my face. In fact I'm used to it; he used to do it to me all the time. Except now I'm going to get killed by him because of some stupid and irrelevant matter!"

"Rex?"

"Now my day is just perfect! You hear me? Perfect!" He flailed his arms around a few more times, then sighed. "And I know that if I run out on him he's not going to stop until he hunts me down and gets me for it, if only just so he can prove that nobody messes with him. Great."

"Then you have to fight him." Shanna finished. "Because, either way you would end up fighting him."

"Yes, I suppose so." He accepted. "Ah well, at least I got to finish my ham roll before all this happened. I'd have been devastated If I didn't at least get my Ham Roll."

"And I did enjoy the calamari and chips too." She finished. "It was most delicious, thank you."

"Yeah well..." He glanced over the room. DJ's mooks were still lying on the floor, moaning. Despite the gruesome amounts of damage Shana had done to them, all three seemed to still be alive, which was a surprise. He was convinced that, with a sword like hers, there'd be severed limbs and blood all over the place. "You didn't kill any of those guys."

"No." Shanna nodded. "Should I have?"

"Well, um... no." He stated. "In fact, it's good that you didn't."

"I thought so, but I wasn't sure. That's why I only knocked them around; if I had killed them, then it would be harder to apologise if I made a mistake afterwards."

"That... makes... perfect sense, actually." He shrugged. "So I guess you're right." He fumbled though his pockets. "Um, do you have any money?"

"Money?" She asked.

"Hell..." He muttered. "Wait, primitive tribeswoman. Big-as sword. Of course she doesn't have any money. Hell, she doesn't even have any pockets in that fur bikini of hers. Probably hasn't even heard of money, instead living in a primitive socialist economy and stuff like that. Shoulda thunk it."

"Rex?" She asked. "Is something wrong? You are talking to yourself."

"Um.." He grinned in a nervous way. "I'm fine, really!" He turned around. "Just, um, wait here a moment." He marched over to the counter. "So, um..." He discretely began, glancing at the man behind the counter. "How much do I owe you?"

The man looked out at the restaurant with its devestated furniture and fittings. He then looked up at the large woman with the large sword, the apparent source of the damage. "No charge." He quickly stated.

"You sure?"

"Definitely." He finished. "No charge."

"Well then, um... we'll be going." Rex nodded. "And, um, thanks." He walked over to Shanna. "Come on. Lets find a place to sleep. I'll want a good nights rest before I get murdered tomorrow morning."

"Very well then." She agreed. "And thank you for the dinner."

After the pair of them left, the owner emerged from the backroom. Picking his way through the debris, he instead walked over to one of the unconscious swordsmen and began going through their pockets. Extracting his purse, he then moved on, collecting the money that the other two, as well as the black-haired woman lying stunned in a corner, had on them.

oOoOo

One of Freddie Cromarte's many changes he'd made when he inherited Big Castle form his father was the installation of a Zoid Stable in the castle proper. He'd had a team of his best architects and engineers work on it, the construction taking years and costing a small fortune. But he felt that the results had been well worth it; replacing an otherwise useless dungeon (His predecessors had decided that the castle needed more dungeons then living space) and a few redundant hidden chambers, the hanger allowed him to have a small Zoid force that would only be a few minutes from him.

He particularly enjoyed reviewing his newest "aquisitions". The newest Zoids that his contracted mechanics had restored were usually bought directly to the castle itself in order for him to look over them. While he would have happily admitted that he was no expert on the subject, it was still always good to have some idea what he was getting.

Tonight was one of those occasions where he found the cold simplicity of the stable to be relieving. The report he had gotten earlier had put him in a bad mood; but them the same could be said every time that particular name came up. That one person represented a bigger threat to everything he hoped to achieve then anyone else he could think of. It wasn't that she was particularly intelligent, skilled or charismatic; in fact, he thought that she was lacking in all those departments. What was the problem was her knowledge.

He put that aside as he stepped into the stable, looking up at the latest array of Zoids that had been bought in. "Interesting batch." he began as a pair of aides approached. "So let's see what we have."

For once, he noted, this lot didn't have the seemingly inevitable Command Wolf, which he took as a good sign. Instead, leading up the lineup was a cat-like Zoid he didn't recognise, similar in size to the Wolf. "What's that one?" He asked as he approached.

"A Lidier, sir." An aide replied. "It's a high-speed attack Zoid. They say its top speed is over three hundred kilometers an hour."

"Very useful." He muttered as he continued along the row. "Twinhorn, Sekta, Stealth Viper, Feelsworder, Saicurtis... Pretty standard bunch here. Not much to note except that Lidier."

"McInnes says she has a few good Zoids that are due to be shipped tomorrow." The aide continued. "A Shield liger and a few others."

"I see." He said, then paused as he reached the line. "What is that?" He pointed to the last Zoid in the row, a small, brown slug-like mechanism not too much bigger then a Connects.

"According to the information from Dashett's crew, its called a Garniarnu or something like that." The aide offered. "It apparently has a long range cannon concealed inside it."

"Very interesting."

"Yes sir. We're still analysing its capabilities, but Dashett thinks it could be very useful to us."

"Hmm..." Cromarte rubbed his chin. "He has tried to pass off junk on us before. But I think that it could be worth our while to see what it can do, at least."

"Yes sir." The aide noted.

"Can I ask why you continue buying from dealers like Dashett?" The other one spoke up. "I mean, most of those low-end dealers rarely have anything to offer."

"Yes, but by purchasing form them, I force them to make a decision against selling to me or selling to their third parties." He explained. "The biggest single threat to my plans are those independent Zoid pilots who roam the countryside. Not affiliated to any leader or ideal, they are a distabilising element that could ruin everything that I have worked for."

"By dealing with the low-end dealers, the ones who do things on the cheap, I remove a major source of new machines for those individuals." He continued. "Eventually, I will control all the sources of recovered Zoids in the region; after all, there are only a finite amount of ancient machines buried in the earth, and by my estimate it will be at least a century before we can replicate their technology. In the meantime, attrition will take its toll on their numbers, eliminating machines with no hope of replacement."

"And, by doing this, we will be able to bring peace to this world." He finished. "And that is why I must have this robot garden slug."

oOoOo

Rex had arisen with a mixture of hope and dead. He'd hoped that he'd wake up and find that it had al been a horrible, horrible nightmare and that he was back in his bunk in the living room of the workshop, ready to rise and shine and spend another day scraping muck off Zoids. More importantly, he hoped that he wasn't in a duel to the death with his arch enemy form his younger days who now had a Zoid and an attitude and a posse of thugs with swords and knew how to use them all.

Instead, when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the same inn that he had collapsed in last night.

Crap.

Shanna was standing over him, already dressed in what passed for her normal attire and with her sword in hand. "Gaaaah!" He yelled, pulling up his sheets. "Can't a man get some privacy here?"

"Come on, Rex!" She began. "It is well past sunrise! You should be getting ready for your great battle to defend your honour."

"I'll never be ready." He muttered.

"You need to be up and fed and prepared for battle." She continued, ignoring him. "It is not wise to fight on an empty stomach."

"I'd fight better on an empty stomach." He protested. "Less to throw up then."

"Now get out of this bed!" She yelled as she grabbed the sheet.

"Um, Shanna!" He called out. "You shouldn't! I mean, I'm wearing-"

She pulled off the sheet, then let out a sudden gasp of surprise. "What..."

Rex blushed and tried to look small. "Well I did try to warn you..."

"But... but.." The warrior woman continued, a look of shock on her face. "Pink with little blue bears?"

"Yeah." He glanced down at his boxers. "I mean, they were the only clean thing I had at the time, okay? No need to keep harping on about it."

"But..." She began. "The colours... so..."

"Okay, okay!" He stood up, and began to pull on his clothes. "I get the picture! First chance I get, I'll buy some new underwear. Fine!" He continued to mutter as he pulled on his shirt, pants and jacket. "I mean, its not like you can talk, what with you wandering around win that outfit and all."

She furrowed her brows. "What is wrong with my outfit?"

"Uhhh..." He paused. "Nothing. Really. It's fine. Perfect." _iFor a warrior girl in silly leathers who is going to stick out like a sore thumb and has a huge sword that could easily rend me in two/i, _he mentally added. "So, um, what's the plan?"

"First you eat." She said. "Then we shall fight."

He slumped. "I was afraid you were going to say that." He sighed. "I was hoping that you had some sort of master plan to skip out of town while, at the same time, throwing him off our track so he'd be unable to catch us."

"Why would I do that?" She asked. "To run away form this battle would dishonour-"

"There's that word again, Shanna." He cut her off. "You see, you're still not getting it. I have no honour!"

"Then you need to earn some." She angrily stated.

"But I don't want any!" He protested. "Okay, so I'd like some revenge but I'd be just as happy if the tool who blew up my favorite lunchroom tripped over and drowned in the bath or was eaten by a feral turnip or something, but... well..." He sighed. "The truth is, Shanna, I'm just not a fighter. Not at all."

"But you fought against those Zoids in the jungle yesterday." She shook her head. "And you were willing to fight those who destroyed your, um, lunchroom."

"Against those guys, I was more of desperate and scared then anything else." He admitted. "And when I went out chasing the guys who blew up the lunchroom, well... I was actually quite angry. But I can't fight. You saw me last night... I just hid in a corner and tried not to get killed."

"Actually, I didn't see you last night." She stated. "I was too busy trying to defeat those attackers."

He visibly deflated. "Well, my point stands."

Shanna paused for a moment, then nodded to herself. "Very well then. I shall teach you to fight."

"What?" He gasped.

"If you wish to defeat those who destroyed your home, then you will need to learn how to fight." She continued. "And, as a warrior of the Spiral Mountain Trabe, I am an expert on the matter. I will teach you to be a warrior, one worthy of the title and the machine that he uses."

"Right." He nodded in agreement, not sure if he liked the idea or was just playing along with her because she was big and scary. "And, um, I'll teach you to be civilised and stuff like that. It's the last I can do for you."

"Very well then." Shanna finished. "So, shall we begin with the first step?"

"And what is that, teacher?"

"Breakfast." She stated, firmly. "You must always battle on a full stomach."

oOoOo

**Genesisbunnies, Chapter 2**

**Audience Nil**

oOoOo

"Wow..." Shanna began as their two Zoids stopped on a hill. "This village... it's so massive. Its bigger then any place I have ever seen before."

Looking down at it, Rex didn't think that the town of Muddy Vale was that impressive. It was a mid-sized frontier community, surrounded by wooden post walls and thick jungle. It only existed because it was at a convenient crossroads for a mess of isolated communities and trade routes, while also serving as a base for the odd archaeological dig or Zoid-recovery expedition (When the two were often usually the same thing anyway).

On the other hand, there was a lot about his travelling companion of the last few hours that didn't seem to be right. As near as he could tell, she had just walked out of the jungle with a rather big and ominous-looking Zoid and proceeded to lay waste to a bunch of random raiders in a way that had moderately terrified him. The fact that he had no idea at all what she looked like didn't help matters at all. All he knew was that he was somewhat afraid of her, which was a good enough reason to play nice. Not only that, but he figured that, at the very least, she'd give him a little backup when he met... well, whoever it was he was after.

"Yeah, its okay, I guess." He replied.

"Do you think we'll find the men you're after down there?"

Rex considered this for a moment. The place was the biggest town around, and they had run off from him... he couldn't think of any other place they could be. And they were very unlikely to have headed off anywhere else. "I suppose so. Might as well go in and find out."

The two Zoids headed towards the town, casually walking in through the front gates and down the muddy path that passed for the main street. The buildings were ramshackle wooden constructions, seemingly thrown together haphazardly or at the last minute. Much of the town looked worn or run down, as if not much thought was put into looking after it. The people on the streets regarded their Zoids with casual indifference, the only attention they paid them was to step out of their way.

There were other Zoids about in the town, however. A pair of Connects scurried past them, their feet splashing through the mud as they ran. A battered Dimantis was parked nearby them, next to it an only slightly better looking Tarantulon. A tank drove past, dragging a pair of heavily-loaded trailers behind it.

"So many people... and Zoids..." Shanna began, an air of wonder in her voice. "I have never seen this many before, except when we meet another trabe."

"Well, get used to it." Rex commented. "This is civilisation."

"I have heard of civilisation." She explained. "But I have never seen it up close."

Rex rolled his eyes. This was going to go well.

The pair of them pulled their Zoids up in a vacant lot that had been given over to Zoid parking; as they pulled in, they were approached by men with stepladders to help them climb down from their massive machines, while another couple tied down the Zoid's feet with chains to prevent anyone from running off with them. Rex knew the setup here; the pilots would be given a key to the lock which would allow them - and presumably them alone - to claim their Zoids as they needed.

As he reached the ground, he got his first actual look at Shanna. He was moderately surprised by what he saw, starting with the fact that she was actually quite attractive. Long, russet hair, a pleasant face, shapely body... and if not for the fact that she was clad in primitive leathers, carrying a huge-arse sword and just a hair taller then him, he could quite dig her.

"Well hi there." He nervously began. "Um, Shanna."

"Yes." She nodded. "And you must be Rex."

"I am, yes." He smiled nervously. "I guess that's not quite what you expected."

"Not really." She shook her head. "You pretty much look like what I had imagined. Except for that thing." She pointed to the top of his head.

"Oh that?" He asked, poking the woolen beanie he was wearing. "My mum makes them." People kept telling him that they were ugly or stupid looking, but he didn't see why himself. He thought they were awesome.

"I see." She nodded.

Rex was about to comment on her fashion sense, but decided to leave it off. He couldn't really argue; her outfit was largely functional, even if he wasn't sure hwy she didn't just wear pants instead of a... um... he couldn't think of a word, but a large scrap of cloth that hung down at the front, with one at the back. Thingamybob. Whatever it was. On the other hand, she did have nice legs, even if there were blue patterns painted all over one thigh. At least, he hoped it was painted, given the similar ones on her arm and face. He'd hate to think that his traveling companion was a tattooed madwoman.

"Umm, Rex?" Shanna asked.

"Yes?"

"You have been staring at my leg for a few minutes." She continued. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, um... nothing." He replied, somewhat fluster at his obvious gaffe. "Lets, um, go... place and get... food." He offered.

She nodded and smiled. "Yes, food would be excellent. And while we are there, you can tell me more of Civilization and what I should expect."

He rolled his eyes, yet nodded in agreement. Anything seemed preferable to getting on her bad side, and he figured that, at the very least, she seemed reasonably nice. Or at least, reasonably nice for a big, scary woman carrying a big-as sword. The pair of them set off down the main street, Rex leading as he tried to remember the one place he'd been to the last time he was here.

A loud clanking noise caught his attention as the pair of them walked. Looking up, he could see another Zoid enter the town, a massive Bigasaur that was equipped with a huge crane on its back. There was a shape hanging from the crane, a grime and much-encrusted Zoid that he figured to be a Command Wolf, probably freshly rescued from the bottom of a lake or something similar.

"I'm glad I don't have to clean that one up." He commented as the Zoid passed.

"Another Zoid?" She asked. "But why does it look like it has been deep-fried and crumbed?"

He almost laughed out loud at the image. "That's how we find Zoids. Weren't yours like that?"

She shook her head. "My Zoid has been in the trabe for several generations. The high priests bought it back to life in my father's father's time, by using the magic of the sacred Book of Instruction and the Owner's Manual."

And then he realised that she wasn't the problem. It was that her whole tribe was insane.

oOoOo

The huge Bigasaur Recovery Vehicle came to a halt in front of one of the largest buildings in town, a free-standing tin work shed designed to accommodate even the biggest of Zoids. The machine lowered the crusty Command Wolf it had been carrying, a small swarm of handlers emerged to prep the Zoid for work. The Bigasaur itself trotted off, leaving the assistants behind to do the preliminary work.

Entering a second shed, the Zoid stopped and lowered its head, allowing its pilot to clamber out. Short and very overweight, she was dressed in a baggy jumpsuit that sported innumerable pockets and pouches, which only served to make her even plumper. Middle aged, with short curly hair and brown eyes, she looked more like somebody's overly affectionate aunt then a Zoid restorer. Pausing for a moment to wipe a bit of sweat form her brow, she waddled out, heading towards the newly arrived Command Wolf. The first stage of the restoration work, the process of cleaning it off, was easy; even the amateurs she had handling it now could do that with no problem. The real fun would begin after that, when she had to asses what shape it was in.

The communicator on her shoulder beeped, catching her attention. It was an idea of her own, to rig up a smaller communicator taken from a Zoid as a remote to the main one in her Bigasaur. That way, she could roam around in the field and still be able to stay in contact with the rest of her team. "Gabby McInnes speaking." She began as she took the communicator.

"Hey, Gabby. It's Larry-" the voice on the other end began before she interrupted.

"I told you never to call me here." She snapped.

"Well I didn't know where you were." Larry continued. "This thingamajig doesn't tell me anything!"

_That's because you're an idiot, _she thought, rolling her eyes. "Fine then, we'll make it quick." She waved one pudgy hand in the air as she was talking. "Did you finish the job?"

"That we did." He answered, a confident tone in his voice. "We whacked that-"

"Good, good." Gabby cut him off. "That's all good."

"So, um, when do we get paid for all this?" He asked.

"Same as we previouly agreed." She finished. "Meet me at my main base in Big Town in a week. We'll soert everything out there."

"Right and, um..." He trailed off. "There's not going to be any... you know there."

Gabby sighed as she looked over the row of recently restored Zoids in the hanger; a Shield Liger, a Grounchar, a Malder and a Lancetag. "No, Larry, you'll have nothing to worry about. Just get there and we'll sort everything out." She sighed again as she closed the communicator. Being the best Zoid Mechanic in the region was something of an accomplishment; the industry was booming, with a growing demand for reconditioned and restored machines. And while Big Town was the biggest single customer, there were plenty of other interested parties.

Gabby had worked hard to build up a reputation for being able to do what nobody else could, restore what was deemed unreasonable and make any machine function as if it was brand new, rather then just recovering from a thousand-year nap inside peat moss. And it was a quality that she was widely recongised for. Unfortunately, there were plenty of other operators out there who, while not as skilled as her, were a lot cheaper.

So it paid to occasionally thin out the competition. After all, she'd managed to get on the good sides of a lot of influential people with a lot of Zoids, many of which she had repaired herself. So every now and then, when it looked like some operator was coming too close to her, she arranged for something to happen to them.

After all, it was one of the best ways to test the quality of her work.

oOoOo

Rex and Shanna walked into a small eatery off the main street, taking a seat by the main window. The place was rather crowded as the end of day traffic was beginning to wander in for their evening meals. Having stashed her sword under the table (Rex wasn't sure if she should be walking around the town carrying such a large weapon so openly, but at the same time he figured that he certainly wasn't going to tell her not to) she had begun studying the menu intently as if she had never seen one before in her life... which, he realised with a sinking certainly, she probably hadn't.

"Shanna?" He asked. "Have you found something you want?"

"Can I eat anything that is on this list?"

He sighed. "Yes, anything."

"Very well then-"

"But, you probably only want to have one thing." He hastily added. "And a drink."

"I suppose so." She read over the menu again. "They don't have any boar sides here?"

"...no..." He continued. "But ham is made from, um, boar."

"What's a camalari?" She continued, cutting him off.

"That's like a piece of octopus or squid-"

"And a chip?"

"It's a bit of potato." He continued. "Cooked in some way."

"And what's a salad?"

This girl could never survive in the modern Big Town eating scene, he decided. "Its... a mixture of green leafy stuff, like lettuces and, um, things like that, really."

"Very well then. I will have the Camalari that has chips and an orange juice." She finished.

"Right." He walked over to the counter to order, adding a ham roll on top of hers, then returned. "So, um, Shanna, tell me more about where you come from."

"I am from the Spiral Mountain trabe; we dwell in a village in the heart of the jungle." She explained.

"Spiral Mountain?" He asked. "There's no mountains around here."

She nodded. "The name comes from our past. According to the legends, we lived in a far off place before the time of the Great Disaster. However, we were forced to travel from our homeland, and eventually settle where we are now. Our name reflects that tradition."

"I see. So is everyone there like you?"

"No, half of them are men." She stated, matter-of-factly.

_I should have seen that coming, _Rex thought to himself. _Defintely. _"I mean, can you all pilot Zoids there?"

"Oh no." She shook her head. "Only the very strongest of us are given Names of Power and are taught to pilot the Zoids that our village uses. We use them in the Heroic Combat aginst our enemies."

"Your enemies?"

"We are at war with other trabes who dwell in the area." She explained. "We battle to see who is the strongest, using our Zoids in the traditional Heroic Combat against each other."

"Heroic Combat?" He asked.

"Yes, it is the traditional combat between Zoid pilots." She continued. "Heroic Combat is one of our traditions, preserved from before the days of the Great Disaster. In it, two warriors fight to determine who is the stronger between them and their two trabes."

"So, in other words, its ritualised gladiatorial combat." He finished. "I see."

"There are rituals, yes." She nodded. "But form what you said you do not take part in Heroic Combat."

"No, well..." He glanced around, suddenly more then a little embarrassed. "Me, I'm just a repair man. I only learned to use a Zoid so I could drive it around the repair bay and test that it was working. And even then, I did very little of that. Hell, I spent most of my time just scrubbing them down."

"How did you learn to make a Zoid come back to life?" She asked. "Were you taught from the Book of Instruction or the Owner's Manual?"

"Not really..." He admitted. "I was just taught the skills by my boss, really."

"Then this Boss must be a mighty priest if he is so knowledgeable and can teach you such things." She nodded. "In our Trabe, all learning comes from the Book of Instruction and the Owner's Manual. If we did not have them, we could never operate the Zoids we have."

All of a sudden, he was curious to see the Brastle Tiger's documentation. Zoid specs were rare and few and far between, and were highly treasured. Of all the Zoid designs ever seen, only a few had complete surviving documentation, and as he had never heard of the Brastle Tiger before, what her tribe had would be a lot more valuable.

Of course, that meant negotiating with a village full of people like her for a look at their sacred texts. Not a good start.

Topic change. "You say your priests taught you all you know about Zoids..." He paused as a waiter arrived with their meals, depositing them and their drinks on the table. He took a sip from his drink before continuing. "I heard that many, um..." 'primitive' might not be the right word to use. "Remote tribes had, um... Shamans who were their spiritual leaders and stuff like that."

"Oh no." She shook her head. "The priests keep the sacred knowledge of the mighty Sky Gods, the ones who rule over us all." She nodded her head for a moment. "Shamans are just tricksters who rely on the easily fooled and superstitious."

Once again, he refrained from comment. Instead, he watched on as she began picking up her food and eating it - without using a knife or fork. "Um, Shanna?" He asked. "Your... utensils?"

"Mrrr whumf?" She asked, a mouthful of food.

"...never mind."

_So I ran off to chase after a sight-unseen attacker who blew up my lunch room even though I had no idea who they were or what Zoids they had, stealing a Zoid from our paying clients in the process. _He thought to himself. _Then I meet up with a crazy woman who's far bigger then me and could probably snap me like a twig and who has a Zoid that looks like its about to bite me. All this and I have no idea where I'm meant to be going or what I'm doing when I get there._

He shook his head. _Yeah, that's pretty much my life so far. At least today can't get too much worse._

oOoOo

A hooded figure sat in one corner of the room, quietly sipping a cup of steaming hot green tea while surveying the room. They were paying particular attention to the pair who had recently arrived and were sitting by the window, specifically the woman. She was clearly a warrior, as evidenced by the massive weapon she had carried. While different in style to the figure's own weapons, it was clear that her massive sword was the weapon of an expert, one who was at the peak of their skill.

What interested her more was the woman's talk; she came from a remote village that was apparently as yet uncorrupted by the influences of the outside world. Her attitudes and beliefs were still pure, untainted by the evils of man's society. She, and her people, could be valuable allies in the great struggle.

The figure continued to watch the pair of them, interested to see what would happen next. They wanted to be absolutely sure of this woman, to asses her abilities and see if she was just what they were after. While she they learned a lot so far, they wanted to see what else there was.

oOoOo

Despite his fears, Shanna had been more or less reasonable at the dinner table. He figured he'd try to teach her about the fork later; for now, he was content to let it slip. Despite her strangeness, he was finding that she was surprisingly friendly and easy to talk to; she was quite cheerful, actually, and willing to answer the various questions he put forward to her. In turn, he was trying to explain some of the social mores of civilisation that she was obviously missing while trying not to be rude about it.

In fact, everything was going surprisingly well. It was a pleasant end to what had otherwise been a quite incredibly awful day.

Which is why he felt a sudden creep of dread at the sound of a large group of people entering the restaurant at once.

"Yo!" A distressingly familiar voice called out. "DJ Griff is in his house, dawgs."

He turned around and then instantly wished he hadn't. Standing in the doorway was a huge man, towering over everyone else present in the room. His appearance could be best described as 'striking'; he had a mass of hair in an anachronistic style known as an 'ephro', a goatee beard and masses of shiny white teeth. His attire was no less arresting; a bright orange shirt that was open to his navel, purple pants and a mass of gold jewelry around his neck, wrists and fingers.

What really irritated Rex was that he knew the man. While Rex had gone off to become an understudy scraper, he'd managed to find a Zoid and a pile of very valuable artifacts. As a result, he was now surprisingly rich and had turned quite obnoxious. Rex himself had been going out of his way to avoid him.

He strode into the restaurant, a small bevvy of thugs with swords behind him. "Yo all better make way, dawgs." He continued, walking to a large table in the center of the room. "Because DJ Griff wants a feed, and ain't nothing that's gonna get in his way, y'dig?" He and his men stopped at the table, grinning at the current diners.

"Now, ladies and dawgs, DJ Griff has already booked this table." He sneered. "And the DJ sees that somebody has already taken his table, which makes the DJ very upset. And when he gets upset-" He snapped is fingers, the four thugs approaching. "There gonna be some mighty bad blood spilled, y'dig?"

As one, the group of diners stood, vacating the table.

"And the DJ does appreciate when you people do such nice things him." He grinned. "Now get outta my sight, before I change my mind and but up on yo shcnizzle, yo dig?"

He and his men barged their way past, sitting down at the table. He studied the menu for an instant, then casually threw it over his shoulder. "Yo, waiter!" He called out. A worried looking man scurried out of the kitchen.

"Yes, sir?" He nervously asked. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Bring us out five - no, ten of your best meals." He demanded. "And you better not overcook 'em or nothing, or else I'll be one bad, angry man, y'dig?"

As the waiter scurried off, Shanna leaned closer to Rex. "Is this normal behavior for civilised people?" She asked.

"Definitely not." He shook his head. "But because he's rich, he has a Zoid and he has a bevvy of thugs with swords, he can act the way that he wants, regardless of what other people think of him."

"That sounds a little mean of him."

"It is and... oh hell." Rex trailed off as DJ stood up and walked over.

"My, my, my, what do we have here?" he began with a huge grin. "And who would this sweet little chicky babe be?" He asked, clearly not knowing or not caring that he was talking to a woman who, when standing, would be nearly as big as him.

"This who?" Shanna continued, looking around. "I don't see any chickens here."

"I mean you, you sweet little thing." He continued. "Do you want to blow this pop stand and hang with a real man?"

"But I am already standing next to a man." She offered. "Rex there is a man."

DJ turned to him, fixing Rex with a death glare. "Dayum. Its you, boy. What rock did you crawl out form under?" He asked, a derisive tone in his voice. "And how did you lay a sweet piece of booty like that?"

"Well, uh, Derek." Rex replied nervously. "I mean, what a coincidence, running into my old friend in a place like this, right?" He smiled nervously."

"Yeah, right, fool." DJ sneered. "Like I'd ever want to see your scrawny little punk-arse here." He instead slapped a hand on Shanna's shoulder. "So, sweet chicky babe, what say we leave this looser behind."

"Can you please remove your hand. I do not like it there." Shanna glared at him.

"I'd do what she says, Derek." Rex nervously replied. "I mean it."

"You shout your mouth, fool!" He snapped. "I do what I want, when I want and- urk!"

He was cut off by Shanna grabbing his wrist and squeezing it as she stood. "I said, I do not like your hand there." She twisted his arm. "Nor do I like your manners. You are making my first day of civilisation a bad one, and that is making me upset."

"Really, Derek, just... you know, maybe just leave it off." Rex continued. "Ees arrying a eeliy ig ord." He added, through clenched teeth.

"For the last time, foo, my name's DJ!" He shouted, then swung at Rex with his free hand. The young man ducked, DJ's fist instead wildly scything through the air. Abruptly, he was yanked back by Shanna, pulling on his other arm.

"As I said." She continued, a feral snarl on her face. "Leave this place now."

"Hey no way, chicky-babe." He continued. "Ain't no woman who talk back to-"

So she punched him, hard, sending him reeling back with a loud cracking noise. He collapsed against his own table, blood flowing frm his nose. "Dat hurd!" He snarled. "Okay, bidch! Noboddy hids me! Ged dem!"

The four thugs charged forwards, drawing out their blades as they all ran at Shanna. The woman stood her ground, however, reaching under the table and pulling out her own sword, bringing the weapon around in a wide arc. Rex hoped that it would intimidate her would be attackers. It didn't.

One charged forwards, his blade back to strike. He was met, however, with the flat of Shanna's blade straight in his guts. With a loud "Woomph" he reeled back, crashing down on a table. A moment later, however, a second man charged at her, seemingly unconcerned about the fate of his friend. He swung around, his sword slicing towards her in a wide arc.

She ducked back, bringing her own weapon up and at his sword. There was a resounding clang as her massive, two-handed blade smashed into is far smaller weapon. The smaller sword spun out of his hand, imbedding itself, point first into a chair. Not letting up, Shanna pressed forwards, swinging her sword down at the man. He ducked to one side, leaping out of the way as her blade instead smashed through a table, cleaving it in half.

Several more patrons scampered out of the way as the fight continued, neither Shanna nor the swordsmen having any real concern for anyone else around them. A third lunged at her as she ducked around the second, his stab only narrowly missing her back as she spun around, instead wedging into the wall. Before the attacker could remove it, she bought her own weapon down, snapping the smaller sword in half before imbedding the tip of it into a chair.

The second swordsman, also disarmed, ran at her, seeking to take advantage of the situation. For his efforts, he received a boot in the guts from the woman before she swung around, the chair still wedged on the end of the sword. There was a splintering crash as she bought it down on his head, the chair smashing apart and the attacker going down.

A second disarmed fighter seems to take this as a good idea, charging at her with a chair. He swung it at her, the swordswoman barely ducking the blow, then sweeping low herself. The sword caught him behind the knees, sending him sprawling backwards onto a table, the chair crashing to the floor. The fourth swordsman ran past him, leaping at Shanna with his blade outstretched. She parried his blow, forcing him back for a moment.

"You dupid bidg." DJ commented as he wiped the blood from his nose. "Your donna ded id dow."

oOoOo

Mirar Kurokami smiled to herself as she watched the woman handle the swordsmen. The woman was proving to be everything she had suspected; a brave, wild, untamed spirit, one that was willing to stand up for themselves and their honour regardless of the odds. She was a superb fighter, even if a little destructive. And her sword mastery was excellent.

This woman would make a perfect member of her crusade. With them at her side, Mirar would finally be able to free her people form the horrible oppression that they were suffering under.

She stood up, removing her hood to reveal her goddess-like features. Pausing a moment, she cleared her throat before making a move.

Then a chunk of flying wood from a broken table smashed into her face, instantly knocking her out.

oOoOo

The last swordsman glanced at the wreckage of his weapon, and then at his three compatriots who were lying on the floor, moaning. Then, he looked up at the woman who had managed to wreak so much havoc on them. Her hair was a wild mess, and there was a feral gleam in her eye, but, more importantly, she looked to be more or less completely unharmed.

He considered his options, and then dropped his shattered sword and ran screaming out the door.

Shanna turned to DJ, angrily glaring at him. "You have ruined my first ever civilised dinner." She began. "I was enjoying it until you came along."

"Well, I... uhh..." He paused, then glanced over her shoulder. Rex was hiding behind her, nervously peering out to see what was going on. "Hey Rex, you crazy little coward!" He yelled, a nervous tone in his voice.

"Um, yeah?" Rex asked.

"You're just as damn stupid as you were as a kid!" He yelled out. "And now you is such a chicken that yo have to hid behind a woman."

"Hey!" Rex called out. "I'm no damned coward."

"Oh yeah?" He began. "Well... If you're so damned tough, then you'll stop hiding behind her and come on out and face me! Yeah! Face me, one-on-one, man to man!"

"I, um..."

"Or, even better!" DJ continued. "Face me in a Zoid, if you dare! Come on, yo stupid little chicken-crap! If you gotr a machine, then whip it out so we can get it on, heroic combat style, dog!"

"He has a Zoid!" Shanna stated. "And he will face you!"

"Shanna!" Rex snapped. "I-"

DJ burst out laughing. "You got a Zoid?" He continued. "Man, that is jus' too good for words." A grin spread across his face. "Tell you what then, boy. You and me, we go at it tomorrow morning in the clearing outside town. And yo had better turn up, or else I gonna come back and hunt yo bitch ass down and bust you but bad."

"I-"

"Very well then." Shanna finished. "Now begone! I do not want to see you before then, lest you incur my wrath even further!"

"Yeah well..." He sneered as he walked past. "See you then, dog." He finished then, as soon as he reached the door, broke into a high speed run to put as much distance between himself and the eatery as possible.

"Shanna!" Rex shouted, as soon as he was out of earshot. "What the hell was all that about?"

"He dishonoured you with is shameful words." She stated. "You had to fight him to regain your honour."

"No... that's... argh!" He shook his head. "That's stupid!"

"Why?" She asked. "Honour demands that-"

"See, that's the thing!" He continued. "I don't know about in... place... that you live but, well, out here in the real world we don't have honour and stuff like that. Honour is just, like, a crutch used by idiots who want to make excuses for themselves and whatever failings they have!" He waved his hands in the air. "I could have lived with him bad-mouthing me to my face. In fact I'm used to it; he used to do it to me all the time. Except now I'm going to get killed by him because of some stupid and irrelevant matter!"

"Rex?"

"Now my day is just perfect! You hear me? Perfect!" He flailed his arms around a few more times, then sighed. "And I know that if I run out on him he's not going to stop until he hunts me down and gets me for it, if only just so he can prove that nobody messes with him. Great."

"Then you have to fight him." Shanna finished. "Because, either way you would end up fighting him."

"Yes, I suppose so." He accepted. "Ah well, at least I got to finish my ham roll before all this happened. I'd have been devastated If I didn't at least get my Ham Roll."

"And I did enjoy the calamari and chips too." She finished. "It was most delicious, thank you."

"Yeah well..." He glanced over the room. DJ's mooks were still lying on the floor, moaning. Despite the gruesome amounts of damage Shana had done to them, all three seemed to still be alive, which was a surprise. He was convinced that, with a sword like hers, there'd be severed limbs and blood all over the place. "You didn't kill any of those guys."

"No." Shanna nodded. "Should I have?"

"Well, um... no." He stated. "In fact, it's good that you didn't."

"I thought so, but I wasn't sure. That's why I only knocked them around; if I had killed them, then it would be harder to apologise if I made a mistake afterwards."

"That... makes... perfect sense, actually." He shrugged. "So I guess you're right." He fumbled though his pockets. "Um, do you have any money?"

"Money?" She asked.

"Hell..." He muttered. "Wait, primitive tribeswoman. Big-as sword. Of course she doesn't have any money. Hell, she doesn't even have any pockets in that fur bikini of hers. Probably hasn't even heard of money, instead living in a primitive socialist economy and stuff like that. Shoulda thunk it."

"Rex?" She asked. "Is something wrong? You are talking to yourself."

"Um.." He grinned in a nervous way. "I'm fine, really!" He turned around. "Just, um, wait here a moment." He marched over to the counter. "So, um..." He discretely began, glancing at the man behind the counter. "How much do I owe you?"

The man looked out at the restaurant with its devestated furniture and fittings. He then looked up at the large woman with the large sword, the apparent source of the damage. "No charge." He quickly stated.

"You sure?"

"Definitely." He finished. "No charge."

"Well then, um... we'll be going." Rex nodded. "And, um, thanks." He walked over to Shanna. "Come on. Lets find a place to sleep. I'll want a good nights rest before I get murdered tomorrow morning."

"Very well then." She agreed. "And thank you for the dinner."

After the pair of them left, the owner emerged from the backroom. Picking his way through the debris, he instead walked over to one of the unconscious swordsmen and began going through their pockets. Extracting his purse, he then moved on, collecting the money that the other two, as well as the black-haired woman lying stunned in a corner, had on them.

oOoOo

One of Freddie Cromarte's many changes he'd made when he inherited Big Castle form his father was the installation of a Zoid Stable in the castle proper. He'd had a team of his best architects and engineers work on it, the construction taking years and costing a small fortune. But he felt that the results had been well worth it; replacing an otherwise useless dungeon (His predecessors had decided that the castle needed more dungeons then living space) and a few redundant hidden chambers, the hanger allowed him to have a small Zoid force that would only be a few minutes from him.

He particularly enjoyed reviewing his newest "aquisitions". The newest Zoids that his contracted mechanics had restored were usually bought directly to the castle itself in order for him to look over them. While he would have happily admitted that he was no expert on the subject, it was still always good to have some idea what he was getting.

Tonight was one of those occasions where he found the cold simplicity of the stable to be relieving. The report he had gotten earlier had put him in a bad mood; but them the same could be said every time that particular name came up. That one person represented a bigger threat to everything he hoped to achieve then anyone else he could think of. It wasn't that she was particularly intelligent, skilled or charismatic; in fact, he thought that she was lacking in all those departments. What was the problem was her knowledge.

He put that aside as he stepped into the stable, looking up at the latest array of Zoids that had been bought in. "Interesting batch." he began as a pair of aides approached. "So let's see what we have."

For once, he noted, this lot didn't have the seemingly inevitable Command Wolf, which he took as a good sign. Instead, leading up the lineup was a cat-like Zoid he didn't recognise, similar in size to the Wolf. "What's that one?" He asked as he approached.

"A Lidier, sir." An aide replied. "It's a high-speed attack Zoid. They say its top speed is over three hundred kilometers an hour."

"Very useful." He muttered as he continued along the row. "Twinhorn, Sekta, Stealth Viper, Feelsworder, Saicurtis... Pretty standard bunch here. Not much to note except that Lidier."

"McInnes says she has a few good Zoids that are due to be shipped tomorrow." The aide continued. "A Shield liger and a few others."

"I see." He said, then paused as he reached the line. "What is that?" He pointed to the last Zoid in the row, a small, brown slug-like mechanism not too much bigger then a Connects.

"According to the information from Dashett's crew, its called a Garniarnu or something like that." The aide offered. "It apparently has a long range cannon concealed inside it."

"Very interesting."

"Yes sir. We're still analysing its capabilities, but Dashett thinks it could be very useful to us."

"Hmm..." Cromarte rubbed his chin. "He has tried to pass off junk on us before. But I think that it could be worth our while to see what it can do, at least."

"Yes sir." The aide noted.

"Can I ask why you continue buying from dealers like Dashett?" The other one spoke up. "I mean, most of those low-end dealers rarely have anything to offer."

"Yes, but by purchasing form them, I force them to make a decision against selling to me or selling to their third parties." He explained. "The biggest single threat to my plans are those independent Zoid pilots who roam the countryside. Not affiliated to any leader or ideal, they are a distabilising element that could ruin everything that I have worked for."

"By dealing with the low-end dealers, the ones who do things on the cheap, I remove a major source of new machines for those individuals." He continued. "Eventually, I will control all the sources of recovered Zoids in the region; after all, there are only a finite amount of ancient machines buried in the earth, and by my estimate it will be at least a century before we can replicate their technology. In the meantime, attrition will take its toll on their numbers, eliminating machines with no hope of replacement."

"And, by doing this, we will be able to bring peace to this world." He finished. "And that is why I must have this robot garden slug."

oOoOo

Rex had arisen with a mixture of hope and dead. He'd hoped that he'd wake up and find that it had al been a horrible, horrible nightmare and that he was back in his bunk in the living room of the workshop, ready to rise and shine and spend another day scraping muck off Zoids. More importantly, he hoped that he wasn't in a duel to the death with his arch enemy form his younger days who now had a Zoid and an attitude and a posse of thugs with swords and knew how to use them all.

Instead, when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the same inn that he had collapsed in last night.

Crap.

Shanna was standing over him, already dressed in what passed for her normal attire and with her sword in hand. "Gaaaah!" He yelled, pulling up his sheets. "Can't a man get some privacy here?"

"Come on, Rex!" She began. "It is well past sunrise! You should be getting ready for your great battle to defend your honour."

"I'll never be ready." He muttered.

"You need to be up and fed and prepared for battle." She continued, ignoring him. "It is not wise to fight on an empty stomach."

"I'd fight better on an empty stomach." He protested. "Less to throw up then."

"Now get out of this bed!" She yelled as she grabbed the sheet.

"Um, Shanna!" He called out. "You shouldn't! I mean, I'm wearing-"

She pulled off the sheet, then let out a sudden gasp of surprise. "What..."

Rex blushed and tried to look small. "Well I did try to warn you..."

"But... but.." The warrior woman continued, a look of shock on her face. "Pink with little blue bears?"

"Yeah." He glanced down at his boxers. "I mean, they were the only clean thing I had at the time, okay? No need to keep harping on about it."

"But..." She began. "The colours... so..."

"Okay, okay!" He stood up, and began to pull on his clothes. "I get the picture! First chance I get, I'll buy some new underwear. Fine!" He continued to mutter as he pulled on his shirt, pants and jacket. "I mean, its not like you can talk, what with you wandering around win that outfit and all."

She furrowed her brows. "What is wrong with my outfit?"

"Uhhh..." He paused. "Nothing. Really. It's fine. Perfect." _For a warrior girl in silly leathers who is going to stick out like a sore thumb and has a huge sword that could easily rend me in two, _he mentally added. "So, um, what's the plan?"

"First you eat." She said. "Then we shall fight."

He slumped. "I was afraid you were going to say that." He sighed. "I was hoping that you had some sort of master plan to skip out of town while, at the same time, throwing him off our track so he'd be unable to catch us."

"Why would I do that?" She asked. "To run away form this battle would dishonour-"

"There's that word again, Shanna." He cut her off. "You see, you're still not getting it. I have no honour!"

"Then you need to earn some." She angrily stated.

"But I don't want any!" He protested. "Okay, so I'd like some revenge but I'd be just as happy if the tool who blew up my favorite lunchroom tripped over and drowned in the bath or was eaten by a feral turnip or something, but... well..." He sighed. "The truth is, Shanna, I'm just not a fighter. Not at all."

"But you fought against those Zoids in the jungle yesterday." She shook her head. "And you were willing to fight those who destroyed your, um, lunchroom."

"Against those guys, I was more of desperate and scared then anything else." He admitted. "And when I went out chasing the guys who blew up the lunchroom, well... I was actually quite angry. But I can't fight. You saw me last night... I just hid in a corner and tried not to get killed."

"Actually, I didn't see you last night." She stated. "I was too busy trying to defeat those attackers."

He visibly deflated. "Well, my point stands."

Shanna paused for a moment, then nodded to herself. "Very well then. I shall teach you to fight."

"What?" He gasped.

"If you wish to defeat those who destroyed your home, then you will need to learn how to fight." She continued. "And, as a warrior of the Spiral Mountain Trabe, I am an expert on the matter. I will teach you to be a warrior, one worthy of the title and the machine that he uses."

"Right." He nodded in agreement, not sure if he liked the idea or was just playing along with her because she was big and scary. "And, um, I'll teach you to be civilised and stuff like that. It's the last I can do for you."

"Very well then." Shanna finished. "So, shall we begin with the first step?"

"And what is that, teacher?"

"Breakfast." She stated, firmly. "You must always battle on a full stomach."

oOoOo

"Hey boss?" One of Griff's thugs asked as he stood by the red and green Gustav. "How much longer are we going to give him?"

"You shut your mouth, fool!" Griff snapped. "Ain't no way that he's gonna chicken out on us... cause he knows what'll happen if he does." He grinned. "Naw, I been bustin' to get on this fool for some time... and I ain't gonna sstop until I bought him down."

"But boss..." One of the men who sported a black eye, spoke up. "Why is it so important to you?"

"Fool, there are some things that a man like you can't understand... things that a man has to do himself." Griff continued. "And this is one of them. I'm gonna make this stupid sucker pay for what he did to me. And when I through making him pay well..." He grinned. "I can take his Zoid, his chiky babe and all else that he has. That's gonna be a suitable way for me to git my revenge on him."

"Boss?" Another thug spoke up. One arm was in a sling, and he had come up short a tooth. "You sure you want to do that?"

"Abso-damn-lutly." He grinned. "A sweet little chicky like that is just the thing I need." He continued. "A firm piece of arse like that is just begin for some sweet lovin from a man of my caliber, y'dig."

"She's got a big sword."

He smirked. "Oh yeah? Mine's bigger."

Another thug grinned. "And you know what boss?" He began, beaming despite the fact that he was obviously wincing in pain. "You're absolfrigginglutely right. You gotta beat this guy and steal his chick, because you're the man. You're the best damned Zoid pilot there is, so you'll easily pound on him and show her just how awesome you are."

"You damned right." He replied, snapping his fingers and grinning at the man. "And because you're so dammed right, you get a big fat bonus at the end of the day, boy."

"Thank you, boss!"

He turned around, looking at the other three battered, wincing thugs. "So all yo homies listen up, here." He called out. "You see, I am always right. And you all gotta understand that. You argue back with me, you ain't ever gonna git nowhere. You agree with me and it'll be totally sweet, y'dig?"

There was a round of muttered replies.

"That's right, boys." He grinned. "So get my sweet-as piece of bling ready. I'm gonna bust this fool up but bad."

The four of them hobbled off to the Zoid's trailer, opening the storage box on the back. Griff grinned to himself as he watched their work, thinking about the victory that was about to come. "Oh yeah. This will be sweet as."

oOoOo

The Brastle Tiger and Houndsoldier slowly walked out of the town, heading towards a clearing nearby. A few discrete enquiries had revealed that it was the favored locale for those who liked to have their Zoids beat on each other, as it was free from trees, passers by and easily inflammable peasant villages. Shanna figured that it was the place that Griff had referred to when he issued the challenge; he'd run off before they could confirm what he meant.

Shanna's Zoid had its head held up high as it walked, the machine constantly looking around for any signs of danger or the like. For comparison, Rex's Houndsoldier had its head drooped, the Zoid's mood reflecting its pilot's. Despite a hearty breakfast of ham rolls, he was still not in the best of moods and not looking forward to this battle.

"So when you guys fight another tribe, how do you do it?" He asked Shanna. He'd been pressing her with questions, trying to get a better idea of what she did as a warrior.

"We engage in the ritual of Heroic Combat." She explained. "Two Zoids face off against each other in the Arena with their trabes looking on. Then they fight, and whoever does not fall over wins."

"Pretty simple, but why do you all have swords and stuff then?" He continued. "I mean, if you decide everything by Zoid, you wouldn't need to fight."

"If one side disagrees with the outcome, then we fight." She offered. "But that only sometimes happens."

"Riiight." He finished. "Oookay. That's good. Hopefully we won't need to do that this time." He really hoped not. He felt bad for Griff's four men; if it wasn't bad enough that they were working for a complete jerk, Shanna had already beaten the snot out of them. And, if things went bad, there was always a chance that she would do it again.

"Yes. I would like to see this resolved as quickly as possible. Hopefully, Mister Griff will be a man of honour and not threaten us any further if yo uwin."

"There's that word gain, Shanna." He cut in. "People like Griff have no honour. You want respect form them, you need to beat it into them. They don't see it as dishonorable to stab you in the back or... wow."

He trailed off as the pair of them entered the clearing. Standing in the middle of it was the shiniest Zoid that either of them had ever seen. gleaming in the early morning sun. About the same size as the Houndsoldier, the Zoid's form was vaguely feline. It had a blocky body and angular features, picked out in white and red. Its most striking feature, however, was the array of brilliant golden cannons around its head, forming an almost mane-like array of cannons. Rex counted about a dozen barrels on the top, sides and below the head, all pointed straight at his Zoid.

"What the..." He began, his Zoid halting at the edge of the clearing. Compared to the dull Brastle Tiger and the rather utilitarian Houndsoldier, the colours of the Zoid they were facing were almost flamboyant and outrageous, and like no Zoid either of them had ever seen before.

"Yo." Griff's voice began over the Zoid's loudspeakers. "I can see you two homeboys are impressed by the power of my King Baron, the most Bling Zoid ever to walk the surface of Zi." Rex could almost see the confident sneer on his face. "Equipped with an array of beam cannons, quad energy shield generators, an advanced processor, power boosters and (ZEP), it's the phattest, meanest, baddest, most mean-arse motherlover Zoid around. And your little doggie there don't stand a chance against it."

"Do not let him try intimidate you." Shanna commented.

"He doesn't need to try." Rex shot back.

"That's right, Holmes." Griff continued. "You all better respect the power of my Phat Daddy Baron. And with it, I'm gonna get you for what you did to me all them years ago, sucker!"

"Look, I said I was sorry!" Rex exclaimed.

"No excuses, boy!" He called out, the King Baron roaring to emphasise his point. "I ain't gonna rest until I got even with you, for what you did!"

"Look, you're rich, you've got a Zoid, you've got a possie..." Rex nervously offered. "And I'm not in any way any of those things so, um, isn't that revenge enough as is?"

"Dammit! You shut your damn mouth!" He shouted as the King Baron charged forwards at Rex's Zoid, roaring loudly. The ring of cannons around the Zoid's face blazed to life, unleashing a wave of fire at the Houndsoldier.

"Yeeep!" Was the best that Rex managed as he leaped out of the way of the beams path. The ground where his Zoid had been was scorched and burned away, leaving behind a wide furrow of hard-baked earth. "Damn it!"

"Yeah, sucker." Griff replied, a confident tone in his voice. "And that's the power of the King Baron, fool!"

Having no better plan, he opened up the throttle, his Houndsoldier sprinting away from where Shanna's Zoid was still standing. The dog-like Zoid charged towards its opponent, growling angrily as they pair of them closed in. Seeing a chance, he opened fire with the triple-barreled cannon built into the Houndsoldier's chest, a trio of shots flying at the enemy Zoid.

There was a shimmering as a pink energy bubble appeared around Griff's machine, the shots slamming into it without any ill effect. A second pair of shots form the Hound Buster cannon did the same, the Zoid apparently ignoring the effects. "That must be an energy shield, then." Rex muttered to himself. He'd heard of them, but never seen one in action until now.

As the two machines closed, the energy bubble vanished. Instead, the King Baron's guns spat fire again, the beams spiraling straight at the Houdsoldier. Rex twisted the controls sharply to the right, the Houdsoldier being staggered as fire tore into its flanks. Looking at it, however, he could see that the damage was a lot less then it could have been.

He broke away, twisting around the Hound Buster as he ran, pushing the Soldier as fast as it could go. A pair of shots blasted into the King Baron's side before it could evade him, the cannons marring its otherwise pristine finish. "Now you gone and messed with my bling, man!" Griff called out. "I'm gonna have to hurt ya for that, big time."

The King Baron skidded around, chasing after the Houndsoldier but clearly loosing ground. As it dropped back however, it unleashed another devastating rain of fire form its cannons. This time, at long range, Rex had a better idea of what was going on and managed to swerve out of the way of the blast. He replied with several more shots form the Hound Buster, none of them coming any closer then the king Baron's fire had to him.

_I don't get it... _He thought as he swerved to avoid sloughing headlong into a row of trees. _He could have opened up with me with some of the smaller guns as we passed or as he was turning.. but instead he let rip with everything when I was further away. _He furrowed his brow as he tried to figure what was going on. _That thing's got more weapons then it knows what to do with, but he's taking only sub-optimal shots with it. He coulda blasted me several times..._

_I'm faster then him, however. That's a plus. And running always helps._

The King Baron came around again, pointing its huge arsenal of head-mounted cannons in the Houdsoldier's general direction, then letting rip. Again, Rex managed to avoid the worst of it; several shots seared through the Houndsoldier's tail, while others blasted into the nearby forest, shredding and felling tress.

_That's it! _He figured_. Griff's such a showoff that he has to try and kill me in one spectacular burst of fire from the big guns. And firing all of them at once drains a lot of power, so he can't do it that often. _He began to consider matters. _All I gotta do is get myself into a good place, and I can get him... provided that he blasts me first. Which is a problem in and of itself._

"All right, Griff!" He shouted out over the PA. "I'm sick of running. You want a fight? Fine! I'm gonna face you like a man!" The Houndsoldier skidded around, turning to face its opponent.

"Damn it, I thought you'd be all chicken crap. But this..." There was a hungry growl form the Baron. "This changes everything. Now this is what I like!"

"Better enjoy it while it lasts, Griff." Rex snapped back. "Because its going to be over for you soon!" He opened fire with both the Hound Buster and the triple cannon, the shots heading straight for the enemy Zoid. The King Baron didn't bother to dodge, instead bringing up the energy shield to block the attack. The shots washed over the enemy Zoid harmlessly before the shield dispersed.

"And now you're gonna get it good." Griff finished as the King Baron again opened fire with the staggering array of weapons. Rex twisted the controls, managing to barely slew out of the way of the enemy Zoid's line of fire, while at the same time accelerating. The Houndsoldier shot past the King Baron, opening fire at its tear at near point-blank range. The Hound Buster poured shots into the Baron's hindquarters, while a half-dozen missiles slammed into the other Zoid, capiltilising on the damage. Wounded, the King Baron stumbled in the mud.

"Damn you!" He shouted out. "Now you're gonna get it!" The Wounded King Baron came around, turning to face the Houndsoldier as it ran. The Zoid leveled weapons, but didn't open fire. "The hell?"

"I don't think you figured how much energy all those guns eat up." Rex finished. "Because now you wont have enough power for your shield or your cannons, boy." He smirked as he opened fire again, the shots blasting into the damaged King Baron. The Zoid bellowed out as it was stuck, stumbling and collapsing onto its side.

The Houndsolder came to a sudden halt, its twin Cross Lances deploying as it approached the downed Zoid. "Okay, Griff, I got you. Admit it."

"Dammit, that was my best Bling, man!" He snapped. "I ain't ever gonne forgive you for this!"

"You've never forgiven me for anything else." He stated flatly. "So why should now be any different?"

There was a long pause from the other pilot. "All right, damn you." He finished. "You won. But don't think this is gonna be the last you see of me, fool." A Gustav emerged form the nearby woods, trundling towards the downed Zoid. "I'm gonna git you for this, you see."

"Whatever." He muttered. "Hey Shanna?"

"That was amazing, Rex." She began as her Brastle Tiger walked over to his Zoid. "You handled yourself very well in battle."

"Well..." He srugged. "I did what I could."

"But you have shown that you have excellent potential as a warrior." She offered. "Given more time and training, you could prove to be a most capable combatant."

"You think?" He asked, a sudden tone of enthusiasm in his voice.

"Oh yes." She finished. So then there is only one issue that need to be resolved. What is it you did that made him so angry?"

"Ummm..." This would be hard to explain. "There was a girl and, well... stuff like that, really." He tried to dodge the issue.

The Brastle Tiger glared at him, its red eyes seemingly boring into the center of his soul. "What happened? Did she choose to marry you instead of him?"

"Nothing like that!" Rex snapped. "Its just that, well... she turned him down at the harvest dance."

"And he is angry because she chose to go with you?"

"No, she didn't go with me either." He finished. "But the point is that she turned him down first."

"Very well then."

In all the confusion, he'd forgotten about that. "Well, yeah, I guess." He finished. "So, um, what do we do now?"

"Simple." She stated. "Now that you have proven yourself to be a capable warrior, we can set out to find those who you seek, and then destroy them." The Brastle Tiger nodded in agreement with her.

_And then there's the catch. _He thought to himself. _No way am I gonna get out of this now._

oOoOo

**Author's Note:**

DJ Griff and his Phat Daddy Baron are a tribute to (read ripped off from) MC Smythe, a character created by Rantinan. Yeah. Don't mess with Rantinan, or else he'll kill you dead.


End file.
